THE issue of the going stick and its accuracy raised its head again last week, with the blithe admission by James Sanderson, Clerk of the Course at Thirsk, that he invents his own going stick readings to make them fit in with his own interpretation of how the going looks.

In an interview with racing content creator Jack Veitch, he admitted altering an official going-stick reading of 8.6 for the most recent Thirsk fixture, putting 7.6 on the official BHA website as he felt that the latter number better reflected the state of the ground.