Cheltenham roar may be beyond them but homecoming is sure to be emotional

Good things come to those who wait, and after months of patience racegoers will make their eagerly anticipated return to the proverbial home of jump racing for the first time since the Cheltenham Festival.

Needless to say, a lot of water has passed under the bridge since tens of thousands of spectators made their annual pilgrimage to the Cotswolds, and few among them could ever have envisaged they would be made to watch the action from home for more than eight months.

The return of a limited number of spectators to British tracks from December 2 was timely and it handed the industry a precious lifeline. The sport has quite simply been poorer for their absence in every sense of the word, with racecourses robbed of their usual vibrancy.