Odds-on for Cheltenham already - and it's a huge worry how many more will follow

It is apparently a myth that The Times fills its letters section each spring with missives from people claiming to have heard the first cuckoo. What its editorial staff does instead is write occasional lectures on how irritating it is that everyone still imagines they care about cuckoos when in fact they last published such a letter in April 1940.

And so another great British tradition is allowed to wither away. But I propose a new one which can be more carefully nurtured by this newspaper: spotting the first odds-on shot for the next Cheltenham Festival.

As I've just invented this game, no-one is going to stop me becoming its first winner. Constitution Hill emerged from his nest, chirping lustily, on Saturday afternoon and, at about 2.14pm, shed the dowdy plumage of an 11-10 poke for the Champion Hurdle, revealing himself to be a rather more splendid 4-7 type.