Hysterical hammering of racing exposes myth the sport has friends in high places

Thank God for Hollie Doyle. Aside from her remarkable triumph at Windsor, there has been little positive reported about racing in the national press over recent months.

Instead, the perception of a sport engulfed in crisis and controversy has fed what felt like a relentless assault, with the accompanying negativity undoubtedly penetrating public consciousness and damaging racing's reputation.

The warning signs were there after the Cheltenham Festival. The unfair criticism that racing got for it going ahead, the unsubstantiated claims about its impact on the spread of Covid-19 both in Britain and Ireland, and the focus – which has continued – on the links between racing and senior figures in government and the Conservative Party led to swathes of negative coverage in the press and a hysterical hammering on social media.