The RSPCA consultant, honoured with an MBE for racehorse welfare, predicts an end to the use of the whip
New Year’s Eve brought the end of an era as David Muir, who has spent 21 years as racing consultant to the RSPCA, completed his final shift by overseeing the action at Haydock, his avuncular appearance as ever disguising the sharpness of his perception. The news had just broken that he was to be honoured by the
Queen with a well-earned MBE for services to racehorse welfare.
Muir has been a delicate task and he has handled it with such skill that attention has hardly ever been called to his presence, somewhere between the sport and the charity. For decades he has sustained dialogue between two groups inclined to be suspicious of each other, knowing there are individuals on either side who would rather have nothing to do with those opposite.