My idea of Ireland's festival winners - I can hear O'Sullevan calling them now

Arkle and his rider Pat Taaffe were among my first heroes of a childhood defined by a range of sporting passions.

Those enthusiasms have lasted so long I have tended to measure out my life with reference to great sporting occasions – Olympic Games, World Cups in their cycles, the annual rugby championship, many more – with Cheltenham the most cherished of all, even if the long build-up of eager anticipation has been more about work than play for the past 30-odd years.

Nostalgia may not be what it used to be, but a recent chance encounter with an old friend reminded us both of our habit of testing our Cheltenham fancies by doing Peter O'Sullevan imitations and trying to assess how credible they sounded.