Derby Club dinner left a sour taste - it's time for racing to fulfil its pledges

As events at Epsom last week showed, we are all fallible. Quite clearly, the stalls should not have opened as jockey William Buick was leaning up against the side of his gate having taken a whack on the head from the horse in the adjacent box. All involved were lucky that something more severe did not happen.

Equally obvious is that a daytime fireworks display would have been better taking place at a time other than just before the most important race in the British Flat racing calendar. Some would argue that it should not have gone ahead at all.

And then there was the not so small matter of the Derby being boxed off and put on a small screen for viewers watching the main Racing TV channel to allow a mile fillies’ maiden at Listowel to be shown at the same time, albeit that situation was not helped by the Derby going off more than eight minutes late.