Why another shutdown of racing would be a welfare disaster for thousands

After a year when demand for Racing Welfare's services jumped by 80 per cent, there are a great number of people who will be hoping that racing's show can stay on the road in 2021 through the latest serious phase of the pandemic.

The top four presenting issues our charity saw last year were physical health, financial pressure, mental health and housing. So damaging has the pandemic been on wellbeing that the number of people seeking help for mental health jumped by 153 per cent on 2019, while we also gave out an additional £135,000 in grants related to hardship created by Covid-19, with requests for support coming from a broader range of backgrounds including racecourse and administrative staff.

If racing were to cease behind closed doors, it would not reduce the amount of care or exercise that racehorses require to ensure acceptable standards of welfare. It would not reduce the number of staff required to go into yards every day or decrease the risk of injury in those places – and it is worth bearing in mind that two-thirds of jockeys' injuries treated by the IJF are sustained away from the racecourse. Nor would such a move now, even observing the safest of working practices, lower the risk of being exposed to Covid-19.