Early signs are positive for the off-course SP but punters need to stay alert

The best thing that can be said for the return of racing in Britain and Ireland over the last ten days is that, but for the masks, viewers might not have noticed the difference. The anxiety dreams of equine bingo have not come true.

You could even argue the opposite. Immediate fitness has probably been more common. It has definitely been expressed with more confidence in the markets. Two extra months on the gallops and the accumulation of lost opportunities has seemingly incentivised the early cashing in of stored-up touches. More are opting for jam today.

It has been a relief just to see results which are intuitive. Form is form, race-reading is race-reading, but something extra, something learned, is needed if you want to assess the horses while avoiding the same sensation you get from playing with a borrowed set of golf clubs. Mastery, in its most prosaic and least self-aggrandising sense, is not having to think too much about it.