The all-weather is a vital part of racing and surely deserves more appreciation than the sport's followers give it

The headlines this weekend will no doubt feature the Betfair Sprint Cup at Haydock and the Irish Champions Festival, but it is also a massive weekend in the calendar for the all-weather – a part of the sport that continues to be undervalued.

The mere mention of a trip to leafy Lingfield or Kempton, tracks that are local to me, is met with stonewall silence or, as has become customary, a response of "the racing isn't good enough".

A trip to Kempton this year confirmed it wasn't just my mates who shared that view, but the wider racing public – I could count the number of people around the winner's enclosure on the fingers of one hand. But people are missing a trick.