It's a time for optimism - even if it did poor Jean-Paul Gallorini no good

You can hear some clever, insightful and outrageous things in the build-up to a Cheltenham Festival, if you pick the right preview panel, but the most memorable line I can recall in the mad season of early March came from a Frenchman whose interest in racing's greatest week proved sadly fleeting.

Jean-Paul Gallorini, a sort of Martin Pipe figure in French jump racing, announced his retirement last month after more than half a century in the sport, during which he saddled just one runner in Britain.

Terribly keen to make an impact as the new starter on The Guardian's racing desk, I stuck my hand up for the job of interviewing Gallorini when it became clear that Kario De Sormain really would line up for the Queen Mother Champion Chase of 2006. This was surely a moment of great significance, a first cross-Channel raid by a man who had been the French champion 11 times.