Sensational King George reminds us what we would lose if Kempton is sold
Whether you're the sort of person who loves Christmas so much the tree gets slung up in mid-November or the type who regards the early onset of decorations with a horror otherwise reserved only for salmon-pink cords and Ed Sheeran, for fans of the jumps this really is the season to be merry.
It is a time of year that confounds those National Hunt grinches who moan about the season being all about four days at Cheltenham in March. The festival may well be the Jupiter in the jump season solar system, but its mighty gravitational pull is not enough to diminish a period where the action on the track comes thick, fast and with lashings of quality.
From the titanic Ladbrokes Trophy (née Hennessy) of a fortnight ago through to a hungover and happy Cheltenham on New Year's Day, the racing is enough to satisfy even the most voracious of appetites.
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- We know that times are tight - but racecourses really do need to step up and improve outdated weighing rooms
- The budget has heaped even more trouble on racing - and I fear many trainers will now decide the numbers just don't add up
- Why I think Cheltenham Festival handicaps need to change - JP McManus writes exclusively for the Racing Post
- No-one has ever emerged from the womb wearing a trilby - racing's future survival hangs on pursuing a young audience
- Four score and ten just a number to Peter Harris as July Cup triumph shows there's more to the elderly than medical conditions