Grand Annual a perennial problem that must be addressed with change to programme

It is not known whether the rather unfashionable Rudyard Kipling was a Cheltenham regular but in his famous poem, Recessional, he caught something of the post-festival mood:

The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.

So much of last week in there – the noise waning into silence, important and grand folk leaving the stage, plenty of sacrifice with six horses dead and that curious sense of humility that the likes of Native River can draw from the soul.