the very good & very bad to whatever is going-on at present.

​Even in times of armed conflict between nations there are winners as well as losers. The losers, of course, are always those at the cliff-face of conflict, soldiers on the front-line, pilots in the sky, sailors on the high seas and civilians on the ground amidst the exploding bombs. But there are always winners, too, usually manufacturers of armaments and those involved in high finance, people who lived in the countryside and bemoaned not being able to go their club in the city or their holiday home in Montserrat. 
This present conflict, Boris’ war or the B.G. s G.H.E., to use code for my overall perspective on what is going on, has forced change upon our sport that, if adhered to into the future, does present great benefits, especially to those on the front-line.
Only allowing jockeys to ride at one meeting per day, something I have advocated several times during the lifespan of this site, is, even if some jockeys see it as a restriction of trade, an innovation that will transform the lives of jockeys and their families. It is also, in a smaller capacity, good for the environment as there will be a few less cars driven at high speed between Sandown and Wolverhampton, Newcastle to Redcar, Chepstow to Salisbury etc.
But the real benefit will be to the health and metal wellbeing of jockeys. In his autobiography Kieran Fallon wrote more than once that his hectic work schedule disallowed any sort of family life and he played very little part in the upbringing of his children. Until the outbreak of this present palaver, this scenario must have played out in the home-life of every married jockey. Not only must the wife, and one should now say husband, worry whether the next phone call is to say their spouse has suffered a serious injury and is in emergency care in some hospital hundreds of miles away but they had little help in the day-to-day care of their children and home, their relationship strung between the necessary requirement of the job paying the bills and quick catch-ups either late at night or early in the morning.
The integrity of the sport, too, benefits from the one meeting per day regulation. When Oisin Murphy, or any top jockey, jumps in his Merc at the end of a day’s racing at Newmarket to speed-off to Chelmsford or Yarmouth, the five or six rides he is booked for denies other jockeys, those closer to the bottom of the ladder than the top, the opportunity to ride a precious  winner and earn a proper living. This present system puts more butter on more bread, minimising his or her need to earn extra money by associating with people wishing to exploit them for inside information.
If the B.H.A. rescind the present rule on one meeting per day they will have done jockeys a disservice similar to removing the ambulances that follow in the wake of every race and will be showing themselves to be indulging in hypocrisy when it comes to the high priority they espouse for the mental well-being of jockeys.
As in war, when the population pray for a conclusion that their eyes cannot substantiate with solid evidence, I fear what is being done to our sport at this present moment is similar to the quiet interludes between air-raids. Although £1-million horse races are on the obscene-side of good health when compared with ordinary living, races to the value to the winner of just over £2,000 is akin to the bombs that fell from the sky but did not ignite – a tragedy just waiting to happen.
I am not one who believe owners have a right to make a profit from owning racehorses but neither am I of the opinion they should throw good money after bad just so that I can enjoy and care-for a sport that has been at the centre of my life for all but six or seven years of my sixty-six and counting. It is utterly wrong to bewail a Derby ‘only’ offering half-a-million to the winner when in general it is hard to find a race worth more than five-grand on any one day of racing. If there is half-a-million quid sloshing around in racing’s coffers it should be spread across the ordinary-day’s fare and not used to bolster the wealth of the super-wealthy, as much as we are beholden to them for the prop they provide for the sport.
I do not suffer from nightmares, though this is daylight nightmare to be lived through, and I cannot help but fear, perhaps even predict, that the glory days are behind us and all the near-future holds for us is a slide toward the post-war years of make-do and mend and hanging on for dear life. Although I am a critic of the B.H.A., even if I am heartened that the next head-honcho, although presently head-honcho of cycling as our present big cheese was previously head of rowing – a theme developing here - has actual working, office-based, of course, experience of horses and racing through  administration of the Northern Racing School, the present dilemma is not of either of their making or choosing. 
In certain ways the B.H.A. have worked wonders to ensure our sport is alive and in some-sort of working order this summer, though in not having the foresight to reschedule the 2020 Grand National for November 2020 to give the finances of the sport a badly needed boost is, in my eyes, unforgivable given they moved most of heaven and a vast majority of the Earth to get the classics and Royal Ascot staged, especially when the government have bound them hand and foot with protocols and propaganda that put the survival of many racecourses in the balance.
With the resumption of ‘project fear’ and local lockdowns imposed simply on the basis of clusters of asymptomatic positive tests for a virus that can only give a healthy person cold or flu-type symptoms, there might not be another Grand National this season or no Ebor or St.Leger meeting, no Arc etc. How much loss can horse racing and its lifeblood owners take before slowly but surely the white flag is hoisted?
All of our biggest and best benefactors are, to be blunt, elderly or soon to enter that state of being, and not all of them have offspring with the same level of commitment to the sport. The history of our sport assures us that there is always someone willing to fill the void of opportunity, be they Indian princes, oil barons, the rulers of Arabia. But these, as we are constantly reminded, are unprecedented times we live in – nothing can be assured.