HORSE racing is a hugely important industry in this country, employing thousands of people and generating millions of pounds.

Our region is steeped in racing heritage, with a network of popular racecourses, and communities such as Middleham and Malton, in North Yorkshire, relying heavily on the sport.

Enormous efforts have been made in recent years to build on racing's appeal in the fiercely-competitive leisure market, with Sunday racing being launched in a bid to attract a younger audience, and racecourse facilities being made more family-friendly.

But the image of racing is about to be rubbed in the dirt. A long-awaited BBC Panorama documentary tomorrow will conclude that the sport of kings is ''institutionally corrupt'' and linked to organised crime.

It is time for racing to be brutally honest. The truth is that there has always been a shadiness about the sport, and racing folk know it is not whiter than white.

Half the battle for punters is knowing which horses are actually trying to win, as opposed to running to get a better handicap mark for a gamble further down the line.

It may not be publicly admitted, but fiddles are never far from the surface. More often than not, they are dismissed as gamesmanship in the same way that football fans accept that footballers dive in the penalty area.

Institutional corruption and organised crime are on another level altogether.

It is all very well for racing's rulers to dismiss the Panorama documentary as "a bit of fluff" but, since the most damning allegations come from the Jockey Club's former head of security, Roger Buffham, and ex-jockey Dermot Browne, they will carry plenty of weight with the public.

We find it hard to believe that a whole generation of jockeys had links with organised crime, but we have no doubt that racing - just like any other sport - has its share of bad apples.

Racing is big business and, where there is easy money to be made, crooks will swarm like flies round manure.

The Jockey Club must send out a clear message that it is taking Panorama's findings extremely seriously - or racing will be the clear loser.