Judgment

I received a text yesterday morning from a name well-known in the racing industry which read: "Have you seen the news about the Findlay fine? It makes the BHA look like twats."

Harsh words, perhaps, but to the point.

I can picture much wailing and gnashing of teeth on High Holborn. But as I mentioned yesterday, they need only create a decent rule and they wouldn't get themselves into this sort of pickle. I see Greg Wood has written as much in typically robust and sensible terms in the Guardian today.

I lunched soon after (someone asked me in the afternoon if all I do is have lunch and dinner; not far off, I admit) with another racing face, whose view it is that there'll be a change of leadership by November, on the grounds that increasing numbers of people are scratching their heads in dismay at the insistence on a strategy and numbers never justified when they were announced in 2008 (before the world's economy fell apart), but adhered to since, nonetheless; and supported with dubious theories and crazy plans. There are previously unpublished posts relating to each which I have published today here and here.

Meanwhile, Down Under, it appears possible that Peter V'Landys time as Chief Executive of NSW is finally drawing to a close. If you compare the interviews he is giving newspapers and the adverts that his organisation is putting out about there being a logic to their strategy (in the Sydney Morning Herald today on page 36) with the no-confidence vote they are receiving from the trainers in their state - brilliantly, as ever, written up by Bill Saunders on Cyberhorse - you will draw your own conclusions about that particular racing leader's rationality.

Me? Well, no time for that. I'm off for another client pitch. :)