'The BHA is bringing racing into disrepute' - Mark Johnston on the hot topics

In-form trainer Mark Johnston discusses some of the big issues of the moment with Andrew Dietz

New BHA chair's in-tray

I think she [Annamarie Phelps] has a lot on her plate. Things are not good at the moment.

I sat on the board myself and they've achieved a huge amount in recent years. The whole industry was happier with the BHA than it had been for a long time.

Steve Harman had the idea to move factional interest from the board and fill it with independent people. I could understand the logic in that, but I warned at the time it was all very well as long as they didn't get a crisis that involved horses as there wasn't enough horse knowledge on the board and I still think that's the case.

Things like the debacle of banning the amateur riders at Cheltenham was created by the BHA. And then there was the Simon Crisford groom incident at Windsor when a BHA welfare officer has turned it into something that has ended up in the tabloids as if it was an abuse of a horse. That's the BHA creating a problem for racing that isn't there.

They keep talking about transparency and for me it's an absolute nonsense. With the pre-race interviews of trainers, they're making it appear that we're all corrupt. I think the new BHA chair is walking into a BHA I currently have no confidence in at all. They are the ones that are bringing racing into disrepute. It's not the horsemen that should be sanctioned, it's racing administrators.

Prize-money

I still think prize-money is the number one issue. We keep getting told football is the fastest-growing betting medium and, although there has been a couple of incidences of corruption in football, generally it's perceived as being completely straight. There are no enquiries to suggest there's corruption and above all footballers earn so much from winning, there's no incentive to lose.

Racing has created this situation of inadequate prize-money in relation to the cost of running and a handicap system which is open to manipulation and cheating. They spend millions on policing it when they'd be better spending millions on making it better to win than lose.

Jockeys' title race

I think the jockeys' title is farcical and I'm certainly not interested in supporting a jockey to win it.

I feel quite guilty looking back that I didn't do more to support Keith Dalgleish more in the apprentice race. I didn't realise how much it meant to him and I'm sure it means a lot to the jockeys involved.

I think the current format is completely ridiculous and not in the best interests of British racing. Silvestre de Sousa has been champion jockey for the last two years and he hasn't been here for half of the year.

Because it means so much to the jockeys, I can guarantee Silvestre would spend more time in Britain – and certainly wouldn't disappear after Champions Day were it still in the balance – if you made the championship the year long.

Championship Horse Racing

I presume it's dead in the water. The man behind the idea [Jeremy Wray] visited just recently and I feel slightly sorry about it because he has a lot of good ideas and tricks to market our sport better. However, he's got fixated on a concept that is wrong and I can't support it.

Running the races as handicaps and, as far as I can see, not explaining clearly to the public why one horse is carrying 9st 6lb and another 9st is problem.

The other thing is the whip. I'm not interested in supporting whipless races as it's bad for racing. He said he can't get sponsors for races with whips but I'm in the opposing camp.

Plus they're not our horses. Sheikh Fahad came out and said he wasn't in because they are his horses and he's not having them running for some other team.

Members can read the latest exclusive interviews, news analysis and comment available from 6pm daily on racingpost.com