Racing Media folk to share the whip pain....

I believe it is now incumbent upon all racing journalists and others working in broadcasting to carefully review the kind of language they use in relation to how horses are motivated to run faster.

For example, one comment on a horse running today reads, 'Roger Varian's filly wasn't punished that day and has plenty of scope for further improvement'.

The use of the word punish needs to be removed from the racing vocabulary along with 'hitting' 'kicking' and 'throwing the kitchen sink' and replaced by words that are more in keeping with the new approach to race-riding.

What I'm suggesting is that for the new rules to create a favourable impression amongst the general public we also need to review the racing language as some might agree with me that the pen is mightier than the whip.