Sick of the relentless Cheltenham Festival build-up? Sorry, but I think we should give it even more

The Cheltenham Festival feels a lot closer after last weekend’s meeting at Prestbury Park, and there are now just two more days of action at the home of jump racing before the big one in March. I’m getting excited – and I refuse to be made to feel guilty about it.

Every season we hear complaints that the build-up to the festival starts earlier and earlier, the point being that we have lots of other major races to enjoy through the jumps season and should be trying harder to make the most of them for what they are rather than as trials for races weeks down the line.

That’s certainly true. We’ll see plenty of fantastic racing over Christmas, of course, and there could even be a surprise January treat in store if the eagerly anticipated rematch between superstar two-milers El Fabiolo and Jonbon takes place two months earlier than expected in the Clarence House Chase at Ascot, recalling memories of the modern-day classic in the same race between Energumene and Shishkin.