If you click here you can read what Nick Rust said to the Industry via the Post yesterday.

I will be in touch directly; I have held a Licence for some 36 years and I will look to use this experence to influence as best I can the decisions that the Industry Regulators are about to take.

It is, frankly, difficult not to be frustrated by this element of the article concerning the decision to proceed with Cheltenham; and I devoutly hope that the 'political' element that is self evidently inherent in this statement is not playing a disproportionate part in the decisions (that will have a direct impact, albeit to varying degrees, on the welfare of loyal staff and our horses) that are going to have to be taken at the beginning of next month.

"There's a lot of blame around the decision for the festival to go ahead but it was taken alongside government and medical advice. Many other activities, such as the Six Nations, took place that week and the advice was to keep going," said Rust.

"If we had cancelled racing against government advice I just don't think it would have been the right decision and it would have been widely criticised as being alarmist.

"However, the mood did change rapidly during the week and by the following Monday limitations on gatherings were introduced and the scientific advice changed. Of course we should be a bit worried, not necessarily because of the decision but the perception of it."