horse racing in the legal spotlight.

​The Racing Post might soon have to appoint one of its journalists to the new position of Court of Law correspondent, although the front page of today’s edition (November 30th) suggests the remit has already fallen to Chris Cook, senior reporter.
There are three cases in total featured, plus an interview with Milton Harris, a man whose past indiscretions has shaped his life, with dust-ups with the B.H.A. and Inland Revenue high on his list of ‘aspects of my life to put behind me.’ Horse racing needs characters like Milton Harris, a man of working-class origins, and I hope he remains doing what he loves for decades to come.
Case number one is taking place at the High Court and involves a week-long hearing to determine if former jockey Graham Gibbons was responsible for the fall at Kempton in 2016 that resulted in Freddy Tylicki suffering devastating life-altering injuries.
No matter the rights and wrongs of both the incident and the litigation resulting from it, our hearts must be with Tylicki as no amount of settlement will ever restore his ability to walk again, and I am sure that Gibbons too wishes on a daily basis that he could rewind the clock so that Tylicki finished that race by unsaddling his mount and not prone in the back of an ambulance.
As with the next case, the outcome of this High Court affair has more riding on it than who was ultimately to blame for the incident. If Gibbons is decided to be responsible and must compensate Tylicki financially, sports people all around the world, or at least in this country, will have to rethink how they play their sport. A finding against Gibbons will set a precedent. Every tackle in rugby or football which results in serious injury may end up argued over in a court of law. Every fast bowler may have to consider the effect of his actions. And so on and so on. There will be ramifications from whatever judgment is delivered; it is sad it has come to this.
I have no sense of which way I want the Tylicki/Gibbons dispute to go, though the second case, which, thankfully has thus far avoided the law of the land and is to be settled in the basement of B.H.A. headquarters in London, I am more invested in. Dunne V Frost also will have ramifications. Dunne may lose his licence and at his age, 35, it may spell the end of his career. For Frost, even if her allegations are considered founded, she might lose, if she hasn’t already, the respect and support of her work colleagues. 
I do not know Robbie Dunne and know little about him. Venetia Williams often uses him when Charlie Deutsch is elsewhere, so he must be a more than capable horseman. But he is not the asset to the sport than Frost undoubtedly is and for that aspect alone I hope and pray her reputation is enhanced rather than sullied by the result of this week’s hearing. It would be hard to accept if the conclusion of the disciplinary panel was that Frost had lied or made-up any part of her allegations of bullying. I like to think I have the second-sense to know whether a new acquaintance is sincere from first meeting and I must confess Bryony Frost won my distanced affection the day she won the Cheltenham Foxhunters. Nothing I have seen of her on screen has changed my opinion.
But more than that; Dunne’s initial defence of his actions, and defended, too, by senior members of the weighing room, was that ‘what goes on the weighing room, stays in the weighing room’. Such a defence is reprehensible and maligns every jockeys’ right to the law of the land. Where is the line in the sand in such a kangaroo court scenario? Everyone has a right to a safe working environment and that applies to the weighing room as it does to every factory floor and office. God knows, each and every jockey faces danger and injury enough already when they go out to race.
Whereas Tylicki/Gibbons might see a rush of similar legal cases, the Dunne/Frost dispute will, I hope, be the last to go this far, even if the B.H.A. are culpable in dragging the misery out for so long a time.
Thirdly, Dan Skelton has found himself the subject of yet another Sunday Times feature. It’s getting to the point where I am hoping David Walsh, the reporter in question, visits a racing stables, in hope of finding something ‘dirty’ to further discredit the sport, and is inadvertently savaged by a horse with big teeth and large hind feet.
Skelton has fallen out with a former owner who believes Skelton sold him a horse for far more than it was worth and has got the right hump about it. The B.H.A. has already cleared Skelton of any wrong-doing but have reopened the case. 
Here I am going to take sides. I like Dan Skelton. I like Harry Skelton, too, and Bridget and old man Nick. I like My Drogo, too. So, as with David Walsh, I hope Tony Holt, the former owner kicking up the fuss, a meeting on a dark and foggy night with a horse-drawn tram.