A record number of jockeys were red-carded (or whatever the horse-racing equivalent is) at this year’s Cheltenham Festival for over-use of the whip. And there are all kinds of furore going on, pundits suggesting that this crop (pardon the pun) of jockeys has somehow sullied the image of the sport.

What image? No one outside of horse-racing, ie 95 per cent of the population, gives the sport a second’s thought. Do they? Even those who bet regularly aren’t really interested in the actual sport, surely? They just want to win free money, no?

We’re not knocking horse-racing, per se. We do pity the poor horses, though.

(Image: from tinou bao’s flickr stream)