Patrick Mullins can see the virus killing the sport - but here's what we can do

Thyestes Chase day is usually an occasion that can be counted on to warm the winter cockles. Traditionally, in that melancholic slump between Christmas and the Irish Champion Hurdle fixture – or the Dublin Racing Festival now – back at Leopardstown, racegoers descend en masse on the Kilkenny venue.

The prospect of getting back there on Thursday should send a tingle down the spine but the January blues have set in hard this year – and it's not just the weather.

There have obviously been a raft of abandonments because of it, so that doesn't help, but it has been a bleak start to 2023. We have seen the oppressive affordability saga escalate and the BHA's bungling efforts to 'fix' a perceived whip issue continue unabated. Small fields, uncompetitive racing and short odds favourites have become a scourge, to the point that the glum narrative has now contaminated the Cheltenham Festival.