50,000 at the Kentucky Derby but no crowds for today's return to Chester

If ever a racecourse were made for spectators, it is Chester, with its tiny circuit and its city-centre location. So it is an undeniable pity there will be no paying customers present for its May meeting, which once more provides us with thrilling action and draw-related excuses over the next three days.

Some 70-odd miles to the east, a capacity crowd was watching the snooker final in Sheffield's Crucible earlier this week. Still more eyecatchingly but much further away, more than 50,000 people attended the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on Saturday night.

So racing folk are hardly to be blamed if, as they watch the field for the Lily Agnes whirl round an otherwise empty Roodee, they frown and fret to themselves about such a slow plod towards normality.