The decline of the great handicap hurdles is something to be mourned

It's Joni Mitchell time again – don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?

Nobody has paved paradise or put trees in a museum, but seeing just 14 horses confirmed for the Betfair Hurdle made many wonder about the ways of the modern world.

Now, there are factors that have reduced the appeal of what was once such a huge date in the calendar that some of a certain vintage still call it the Schweppes, even though "Schhh . . . You know who" have not sponsored it since 1986.