AN EVASIVE REPORT

Formula One is a sport of narrow engineering precision. When a mechanical malfunction suddenly arises, the root of the problem can invariably be traced back to the exact culpable bolt, wire or valve, sometimes involving an input of human error in a climate were honesty is essential.

It's near to rocket science from which it has benefited greatly. In the fascinating book 'Dr Space', about the life of Wernher von Braun, it is revealed that the rocket pioneer made it of high priority to promote a culture of honesty in the pursuit of perfection.

The book's author Bob Ward writes of an incident in 1953 when a Redstone missile, being tested at Cape Canaveral, suddenly failed in mid flight. Test after test followed on the area in which it was believed the fault existed but no answers were found.

Then, one of the test engineers came to von Braun's office to say that during the preparation for the launch he had touched a contact which produced a spark. As the procedural checks he then carried out produced no faults, he did not think the incident was significant but thought it should now be mentioned just in case there was a link to the malfunction

This information resulted in a further analysis being conducted which revealed the cause of the missile failure. Von Braun then sent the engineer a bottle of champagne so that the message cascaded to his team that total trust and honesty is essential in missile development.

With horse racing administration, the hope of a culture of honesty and trust with the aim to benefit the greater cause is something that can only be dreamed of. For it doesn't know its Aft Unit from its Jet Vanes, something that is apparent reading between the lines in the Horse Welfare Board's five year welfare strategy titled  'A life well- lived '.

The one hundred and thirty page report which can be downloaded from the BHA website contains a section with the heading ' Growth and maintenance of trust.'  It states that ' To achieve trust, particularly with outside audiences, we must also consider issues of perception '.

A concerning aspect of this section of the report is that it soon becomes apparent that it advocates that in order to change some negative perceptions, compromises may be required which would result in long established traditions being challenged.

This leads on to section 11.1, ' The future of the whip'  which is yet more time spent on what should be the non issue of an area that it is needlessly discussed live on air every couple of weeks.

The whole underlining mood of the report is of apology and appeasement to factions whose ultimate aim is to wipe out the sport and who are patient enough to do it by a process of small steps that chip away until, they hope, that the whole structure will be dismantled.

In the section on safety, there is a timeline diagram, highlighting improvements made from the 1960's to the present day. Some we must be thankful for, such as replacing the concrete posts and wooden rails during the 1970's, and the banning of jump racing on hard ground in the 1990's, while the disguised abolishment of the race that was the Grand National, will not have been similarly welcomed by traditionalists - in fact, the report has some of the 'modifications' missing from the timeline.

To many, the most anticipated section of the report relates to responsibilities of the racehorse owner in relation to aftercare along with the tracking for life of all horses bred for racing.

Section 9.4 of the report, ' Understanding responsibilities ', speaks of the owner being put on an 'education scheme' so they will understand that they are, ' ultimately accountable for the horse, particularly when its racing career is over, and to ensure they are equipped to exercise that duty of care. '

You cannot help but conjure up an image of pot bellied, snappily dressed wide boy, who was on a good run through making some dodgy property developing deals but is now suddenly having to cut back on excesses after high risk investments came up tails and placed him deeply in the red.

Is such a character going to give two hoots about aftercare for the horse he splashed out on that can't run fast enough to keep itself warm ?  Of course not, and owners with similar profiles are aplenty within the sport. These are the ones trainers are forever chasing for unpaid bills and are often cited as part of the reason why they end up calling it a day and handing in their licence.

Section 9.5 of the report ' Funding of aftercare', provides  lightweight suggestions but no solution. In fact, in it the HWB concedes, ' we lack specific expertise in this area', which hardly gives encouragement that things will improve. It suggests that responsibility is in the hands of the whole industry and that an expert funding review should be conducted. This basically means they haven't a clue what to do.

Section 9.6  ' Euthanasia' , talks of the potential for greater scrutiny of the use of euthanasia in the      ' breeding, pre-training, sales and aftercare sectors'. It mentions the introduction of a 'clear decision process or decision tree, that is adopted and clearly communicated by the whole industry. '

It's hard to see how this will alter anything. Just a case of ' car is a write off, give me x amount for scrap and we'll both sign here', though our vehicle may be a fit, healthy and manageable young horse whose crime is not being able to run fast enough.

Regrettably, the whole gist of the report, presented with lots of bold highlighting and the use of in vogue buzzwords and phrases, is that it has been selectively crafted.

It's all well and good displaying charts that show that racecourse fatalaties are low in percentage terms, but when they do not give the figures of how many of the four thousand odd horses that leave training in Great Britain alone each year are unaccounted for, then it shows the project is one to stall time while they work out what to do over the next few years.

If for some reason the financial bubble fails to burst and the numbers of horses in training are maintained, then they'll have to work on another document to explain why so many 'tracked' horses that have left training end up being euthanized. Hardly a true culture of trust and honesty.is it ?

Image Apollo 11  - in the public domain