an e-mail i sent to tom lee.

​My life is enhanced by the presence of the Racing Post. When publication was suspended due to the Bill Gates sponsored Global Health Emergency there was a media hole in my life that no other newspaper could fill. When I die one of my funeral stipulations will be to have that day’s copy of the paper under my head as part of my grave goods. I rely on the Racing Post to be there every morning; I want it to survive; I will it to thrive. I wish it were cheaper to buy, though.
So, when I send e-mails or the occasional letter to its editor, I try very hard not to be critical, to either put across an alternative viewpoint or an idea that might be useful. Last week I sent an e-mail to Tom Lee, the paper’s new and still youthful editor. But as with his predecessor, Bruce Millington, I did not receive a reply.
I wrote to ask if he could put a stop to his columnists referencing the Cheltenham Festival and the spread of the Covid virus which in relation to the Leicester lockdown was happening too often for my liking. I pointed out to Mr. Lee that two studies, one conducted in Ireland and another in the local area, concluded that the Cheltenham Festival had very little impact on the spread of infection and in not referencing either of these scientific studies his columnists were shooting racing in the foot, so to speak. I did not add, though I should have done so, that horse racing does not have to apologise for taking place as the government gave us priority over other sports as they were mighty keen for the betting duty we provide to the exchequer. 
I made two other points, though I acknowledged that his hands are doubtless tied due to the contract between the government and the media, forbidding them not to rock the boat, to question the official narrative in any meaningful way. But with racing’s finances being squeezed all ends up, I thought it would be pertinent if one of his columnists asked this question – if masks have integrity, why the need for social distancing, and if there is integrity in social distancing, why the need for masks? This belt and braces approach to virus control is only being enacted, it seems to me, when it comes to racing. In football, for example, the players do not wear masks and come into contact with each other minute by minute, with some of the coaching staff wearing masks and others not, with intermingling as prevalent as back in the good old days when flu epidemics were dealt with by simply treating the sick and leaving the healthy to get on with their lives. In the centre of Newmarket Heath, it seems incongruous, or damn ridiculous, to witness jockeys, stall-holders and racecourse staff, protecting themselves against the unseen viral enemy by wearing a face-mask, when surrounded for miles upon miles by clean, fresh, invigorating air. I just thought one of the Post’s columnists might just mention it.
I also wrote, and this perhaps was criticism, that horse racing can ill-afford the loss of its greatest revenue provider. I complained at the time that the B.H.A. abandoned the 2020 Grand National as if in doing so they were dodging a bullet. At the time of the abandonment, there were still eight-months of the year in which to reschedule the race. They moved mountains to ensure the classics were run, as well as Royal Ascot and the Eclipse, yet they could not bring themselves to announce that they would move a small hill to get the Grand National run in 2020.
I said at the time that I understood the Grand National could not be run in April, though I proposed the race could take place at either Aintree’s October or November meeting. I realise that a) if the race was rescheduled for either of these dates it would mean the 2020 Grand National would be run outside of the 2019/20 season and that b) it would mean two Grand Nationals in a six-month time period. Logistically this might be quite demanding for both the organisers and the sponsors, what with everything that must come together to stage the world’s most famous horse race, but I would argue that at this critical moment in our sport’s history, with its very future being questioned by some people, the revenue from two Grand Nationals in six-months is exactly what the sport requires. And anyway, two Grand Nationals in a calendar year might make up for all those years when we had no Grand National, a fate not to befall the Epsom Derby and Royal Ascot, at least not in my lifetime.
Again, I thought someone on the Racing Post staff might be on the same wave-length, someone who could at least start a debate amongst the Post’s readership.
It is my belief, and the B.H.A.’s differing response to saving/cancelling the Grand National, the Derby and Royal Ascot, drives home the truth of their position on the two codes of the sport – flat racing is more important, even if in general it is less popular with racing’s audience.