Five-day Cheltenham Festival almost a foregone conclusion

The dust had hardly settled on Cheltenham before Rod Street, chief executive of Racing For Change, reopened the debate on whether the festival should start on a Wednesday and finish on a Saturday.

And, of course, there is always the possibility of the extravaganza being extended to five days and if the purists think that making a case for keeping it as it is, on the basis the whole thing will then be overly diluted, then they may as well sing for their supper.

Cheltenham is a runaway train, a victim of its own success and, quite frankly, there is no knowing where all of this is actually going to end.