Bumpers, bumpers, bumpers . . . it can't just be me who's getting sick of them

Many years ago, as a young student at Lancaster, I used to spend my Saturday visiting northern racecourses. I had often lost my weekly food and beer allowance by the last race, which was the case one winter's day at Haydock.

The concluding race – a 20-runner bumper – seemingly offered little in the way of a get-out, but I noticed Jenny Pitman had sent just one horse on the long trip from Lambourn that day and couldn't believe her Winter Measure was 20-1. A small wager meant that ten minutes later the week's food bill was no longer an issue.

Those were the days when bumpers were not very common and still held a novelty value, with just the odd one stuck on the end of the card. How things have changed. They now seem to crop up on virtually every jumps card and the negative impact of this increase is shown in the average field sizes.