IT may have been a quiet week on the racing front, but the devil makes work for idle hands, and tempers have been getting frayed over an article penned by the excellent Tom Kerr in yesteday’s Racing Post. Well, that’s not quite true, as the majority of people getting hot under the collar were reacting to the headline “Why Racing Must Ban The Whip”, rather than the article itself, which was rather more nuanced and thoughtful than the front page.

The problem here is that while a well-written piece on a controversial subject can prove engaging and thought provoking to the reader, even when that reader already has a strong opinion on the subject, banner headlines do not engage, and the assumption that people who see the headline will subsequently read the article is wildly optimistic given modern reading habits. More than ever, people form opinions based on soundbites and slogans and the reaction to most people seeing the Racing Post in the newsagents, whether they pick it up or not, is that racing has a problem with welfare.