The danger of piling all our eggs into the Cheltenham Festival basket

We are nearly there. After months of anticipation, you can almost hear the roar that on Tuesday will greet the release of runners in the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.

It has been a long road to the 2018 Cheltenham Festival, and it’s a point worth remembering with the ultimate destination in sight. Several factors combined to make this year’s run-up a drawn-out affair that lacked the wow factor – the distinct shortage of headline acts on Saturday afternoons has become a cause for concern.

Who cares, you might ask, when the tapes are about to rise? In the longer term, however, those who run the sport should open discussions with professionals with a view to enhancing the 2018-19 preamble, and those beyond it. There is a near five-month lead-up to Cheltenham during which ITV Racing broadcasts live on 20 Saturdays. It is a shop window too important to ignore.