All to play for as the Jockey Club weighs up the pros and cons of a fifth day

There is such a thing as a self-fulfilling prophecy and if a sufficient number of racing insiders keep saying a five-day Cheltenham Festival is inevitable, that will do much of the work in smoothing the path towards such a future.

But we are not there yet and it is still not clear that senior officials at Jockey Club Racecourses are actually determined to move in that direction. One JCR insider pointed on Monday to the Club's mission which, as stated on its website, is "to act for the long-term good of British racing in everything we do".

The suggestion is that there would have to be some kind of consultation process with the sport's various stakeholders before a move to five days could be decided, as a means of making sure that those who matter would support such a project. The immediate reaction to Monday's news shows that some significant figures are instinctively opposed to it.