to run away and hide wins no battles.

​Horse racing is more and more marginalised by mainstream media. I.T.V., with its defence and promotion of the sport is horse racing’s greatest, perhaps only true, ally at the moment. Their production at Royal Ascot this week will be up with the best televised sporting action of the year. Ed Chamberlain will be professional and enthusiastic, dressed to the nines in clothes that would look satirical anywhere outside of a church wedding, especially so, though, in temperatures hitting the mid-seventies when common-sense would decree men strip down to their shirt-sleeves. Bravo to him and his male cohorts on the podium. I would not survive twenty-minutes under such brutal conditions.
As with all major race-meetings, though, a cloud of confrontation will hang over the King’s racecourse this week and will not dissipate until the riders dismount after the final race of the meeting. This, sadly, will be the way of things for our sport for years to come.
‘Animal Rising’ present the sport with more than mere menace. It is not a fringe movement. It is not a band of misguided brethren avowed to do good for the world. They are affiliated to ‘Stop Oil’, ‘Black Lives Matter’, ‘Extinction Rebellion’ and are shadow-funded by the Soros family and a member of the Getty family. They have finance and they have a cause. A dangerous combination.
If they don’t get us now, they may well get us through our children, or your children, as I have played no part in furthering the survival of our species. In the U.S. and Australia, perhaps Great Britain, though I have seen no evidence for it, the LGBT, and possibly xyz, community have infiltrated the class rooms of primary schools. The education of the very young exposed to transgender politics and in one video children as young as six or seven encouraged to give dollar-bills to gyrating trans dancers. I kid you not. Win over the kids and in time you have won over the adults. What if Animal Rising were to be allowed into the classrooms of Great Britain? 
As I see the situation, it is folly to ignore Animal Rising in hope they will eventually go away, and dangerous to engage with them without a counter-offensive strategy. Running away has never won a battle, let alone a war.
To quote the B.H.A. after rejecting Animal Rising’s proposal for a t.v. debate: ‘the B.H.A. does not believe it is possible to reach common ground and is concerned that continuing to engage in national debate will play into the group’s hands’. While there is no dispute there is no common ground between horse racing and the aims of Animal Rising and never can be, warring factions always end-up around the peace table. When outside agendas have been met, Ukraine and Russia will find themselves negotiating a peaceful settlement. It is inevitable. It is the way wars tend to end. Talk, talk is better than war, war, to misquote Sir Winston Churchill. Boy, could we do with him around now!
Which side of the divide possesses the moral high ground here? If the B.H.A. are secure in the belief that horse racing is a fair and honourable sport, that the horse is cared-for to the enth degree by their human partners and can argue that many thousands of people are employed directly or indirectly in the industry, why not go on a national forum and try to expose the holes in Animal Rising’s views? What was the phrase the B.H.A. used when they asked people to give their opinions on the whip and its use? ‘The public licence’, was it? We only survive if the public continue to licence the sport by its acceptance.
Animals are not rising up, by the way. It is not the horse that is up in arms. It is a small group of people who are manipulated to do the work of those who wish to bring down society to reset it in image of themselves. Animal Rising are idealists. They believe they have a right to abolish any aspect of society that offends them. All round the world animals are used and abused, animals in far more urgent need of the protection of those people who sit in vegan cafes and demand the B.H.A. do as they say or else, than racehorses.
I do not believe playing hide and seek with Animal Rising is the way forward, especially if, as expected, the Labour Party win the next election. Our trump card is the revenue the horse racing industry brings to the Exchequer. Not even a socialist government will be able to afford to turn its back on the regular stream of money that the sport annually delivers. But Labour, as an act of appeasement, may ban jump racing, with the knock-on effect that will put eventing and show-jumping in jeopardy.
The debacles at Epsom and Brighton recently were mere bullets in the foot when compared to the possible bullet in the head if Animal Rising gain traction within the Labour Party.