David Muir's stewardship at the RSPCA a lesson in how to rise above the noise

A quick flick through social media is all it needs to see that empathy is in increasingly short supply. Extremists quickly suffocate initially measured opinions with language designed to cause maximum offence – and that’s just discussing whether fried eggs are best served sunny side up.

You wouldn’t think the insults could get any more inflammatory until you scroll through a genuinely contentious topic, when they go right off the scale, and where racing is concerned there is no more contentious topic than horse welfare.

These thoughts sprang to mind as I read about David Muir’s tenure as the RSCPA’s racing consultant in Monday’s Racing Post. Muir retired at the end of last month after 21 years. The way he conducted himself in an extremely taxing role is an object lesson as racing considers how to deal with a toxic issue.