Reasons to be cheerful? How about a tenner to get into Cheltenham for starters?
Reasons to be cheerful? We all need them, certainly every January and especially this one, with the price of a racecourse pint making an affordability check necessary every time you get a round in.
Reasons to be cheerful, part one: Rescheduling big races. There are legitimate questions about why Clarence House Chase entries have not been reopened and whether Lingfield's Winter Million card should be rescheduled, but there was a time, and not that long ago, when every weather-beaten race was simply excised.
Now we can again look forward to the clash between Energumene and Edwardstone as it moves from Ascot to Cheltenham. Not only a change of venue but of racecourse ownership and from a right-handed track of steadily changing gradients to the left-handed roller-coaster of Prestbury Park. Mind you, the 1989 winner Desert Orchid would not have approved.
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- Unsavoury shunning of Callum Shepherd makes no sense whatsoever, he deserved his shot at Derby glory
- The whole shape of the Irish Flat season is being defined by one man only - and even his main targets lie elsewhere
- Analysis: Flutter and 888 have enjoyed contrasting fortunes but they still have things in common
- Only a baby step but an important one if racing is to keep some of its David v Goliath moments
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