To win pounds for Cheltenham, you need to worry about pounds in hand at Sandown

A fortnight ago Cheltenham still seemed an eternity away. Now it’s firmly within touching distance, although sadly not for Energumene or Thyme Hill.

We’re entering those final days and hours before the tape rises for Tuesday’s Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, which heralds the opening of jump racing’s olympic games.

It will be a very different Cheltenham Festival this year in the absence of racegoers, but that unique sense of excitement and anticipation which greets this meeting like no other in the calendar remains magnificently undiluted.