How racing can keep public onside and push back the puritans

It was at the turn of last year that BHA chief Nick Rust spoke of racing’s ‘social licence’ and of the need to go "further and faster" on the issue of welfare.

A year on and those comments look prescient. Racing authorities from America to Australia are, with differing degrees of urgency, making similar undertakings. The BHA has set up a welfare board and professionals in the sport are proving willing and able to take up the challenge of promoting the sport’s record on this issue. Racing in Britain is on the front foot and that’s good.

The term ‘licence’ suggests an element of permission, but what we’re really talking about is trust. Racing must earn and maintain the trust of both the racing and the non-racing public.