We can't get close to each other - but the horses are no longer out of reach

Just a week and a half to wait. We're so close to getting racegoers back on track you can nearly taste that first celebratory drink, almost hear the crowds hollering as though it was the opener at Cheltenham as the stalls explode at Doncaster.

It will have been nearly six months since paying customers walked through a racecourse turnstile and if the government does yet another U-turn (on form and with infection rates unsteady that's 4-7) as it did on the eve of Goodwood's trial, then there will be uproar in the streets of Middleham, Lambourn and probably around the BHA's High Holborn headquarters.

Yes, there are more important things to consider, and even the most ardent fan wouldn't clamour for reopening if it meant a rise in the R number and impacted on children returning to school. But, as in so many other sectors, the importance to people's livelihoods of a resumption of normal activities cannot be overstated.