Then and now: Cheltenham Festival changes in my working life make it barely recognisable

St Patrick's Day 1987. I remember it well. Galmoy won the Stayers' Hurdle and I saw my first contribution to Racing Post appear in print, Spotlight verdicts for Limerick.

Tony O'Hehir, the Post's Irish correspondent, had pencilled me in for the task a few weeks earlier, around the time when my friends and I, typical Irish jump racing fanatics, were beginning to think about the Cheltenham Festival in a semi-serious way.

Thousands of Irish racegoers would have made their travel plans months ago. From Christmas, there would have been sporadic mentions of a Gold Cup horse or a Champion Hurdle horse, or speculation about whether a novice would go for "the shorter race" (Supreme/Arkle) or "the longer race" (Sun Alliance Hurdle/Sun Alliance Chase).