Small grenade does not create much of a bang - but transparency comments will not have gone unnoticed

As explosions go there have been louder ones, but the key message of BHA chief executive Julie Harrington's speech at last week's Gimcrack Dinner will have been heard by its target audience.

The York dinner is one of the oldest and definitely one of the grandest events in the British racing calendar, with this year's the 252nd since the first in 1767.

It has become something like the industry's Mansion House speech, when one of the sport's heavyweights gives their thoughts on the state of the racing nation.