2002 was a truly extraordinary festival - but it could be recreated next week

'You can stick your nostalgia,' was the firmly expressed message from veteran stats analyst Bryan Gault the other day in response to what he clearly felt was an overly sunny picture being painted by many hands of the old three-day Cheltenham Festival. Like me and most of you, Gault has been around long enough to have his own memories of those times and they are not all glorious; he gave the unlamented Cathcart a kick during his Twitter outpouring.

A contrarian instinct is broadly helpful to a punter, I think, and Gault certainly seems to have that. But he is backing a loser if he really expects the rest of us to give up our lasting fondness for the earliest days of our involvement with jump racing's biggest event, however far back that might happen to be.

Next week's clash between Galopin Des Champs and Bob Olinger is worth every bit of anticipation. But the law of diminishing returns means that, even if it proves to be the barn-burner of all time, it won't make the same impact on me as Bobsline versus Noddy's Ryde.