horse racing matters, doesn't it? a few thoughts.

​We live in a world that is becoming increasingly artificial and many leagues separated from the lives of our childhood, if you are my age, and an unfathomable distance from the days of ‘living off the bounty of the earth and seas’. All was not in the pink back then, of course, and some aspects of life are infinitely better in the present age. But that does not predispose as a species we would benefit mentally, spiritually or physically from wholly breaking the chains of the past. 
Horse racing is not immune from the central control of governments or their influencers. Yet horse racing is becoming a flagbearer for the days of yore. Racecourses are a lung in many urban landscapes, a green oasis of fresh air and open space in the towns and cities that were once open fields and woodland.
Horse racing brings the countryside to the urban sprawl. Watch YouTube videos of racing in the nineteen-fifties, sixties and seventies and you will not see racecourses encroached upon by modern housing developments. Newbury, for instance, is unrecognisable today when compared to the day when Mill House and Arkle first clashed in the Hennessey Gold Cup. Newbury has become parkland to an estate to domestic living quarters, the wonderful racecourse, first considered by legendary local trainer John Porter, might, I fear, be close to being listed by planning officers as ‘infill’. British racecourses should seek listed status. Recall the plight of Aintree in the Red Rum era of the sport!
Horse racing is a directly viewable connection between horse and man, perhaps the most historical union between animal and human. Horses are no longer ‘stock’ or ‘beasts of burden’ but a cherished companion, with jockeys now freed from the yoke of their former colleagues separation from emotion for their steads and able to express their affection and downright love for the horses that are the pivot of their lives. If horse racing is not in reality a sport with a heart, we fight the challenge of being accused of being no better than bear-baiting and cock-fighting.
Horse racing has a unique place in British society as its inception, history and evolution stem from monarchy, with Queen Anne still annually commemorated at Royal Ascot. Kings, Queens and Prime Ministers have involved themselves in the sport. Yet, at its core, it remains a working man’s sport, even for those of wealth and status who wish to be employed within the sport in one capacity or another. To work with horses is to be a class of people that work hard and long. Jockeys, trainers, stable staff, are all working-class no matter their family history. Horse racing embraces all social classes, all religions, all faiths, all nationalities. The horse allows no privilege just because those who come into contact with them are of royal, noble or wealthy descent. Horse racing connects all people from royal palaces to the estates that now encircle our racecourses.
Horse racing is perhaps the only sport that must deal with true tragedies on a regular basis. We wish it were different, yet it is the unwritten contract that we must abide by. Death sits at our shoulder, be it equine of human. In that, we are link to a past when life really was a day-to-day survival.
Gambling is not solely a racing matter. Horse racing is not solely an activity for the gambler. Horse Racing Matters for so many reasons beyond the bet offered and taken.

The ‘social licence’ has become a phrase to beat the sport with. It should not, though, refer to the misinformation of those who wish ill of the sport but to the number of people who attend race-meetings, view the sport on television and who spend their disposable income on owning racehorses or who bet on horse-racing. If the ‘social licence’ becomes a poll for objectors then in time all sport may become the target of people who simply oppose sport for no other reasons than they do not understand it or dislike the noise generated by those who attend sport.
An inner ‘social licence’ should exist, though, with everyone employed in the sport covered by this obscure and unwritten licence. Jockeys, for instance, should be given opportunities beyond the present system to prove their worth, with many more races restricted to jockeys in the lower half of the jockeys table. Trainers, too, should be allowed a fairer hand, with races throughout the season restricted to trainers with less, for example, fifteen horses in their care, twenty-five and forty horses registered in their name. The ’social licence’ should be in place to protect those who strive and struggle to make a living out of this sport, those hard-working and dedicated people who are the foundation stones of the sport. In this, the British Horseracing Authority is negligent.
Of course, the gold standard ‘social licence’ is the care of racehorses both in training and in retirement. In the latter the sport has until recently also been negligent, though thankfully we are now as a sport fulfilling that particular obligation. More must be achieved, though. We must see our sport through the eyes of the horses who we depend upon.