£45m revamp, £100k on trackway, 250 tons of gravel and 70,000 people – easy!

It wasn’t something we ever liked to admit out loud, but for a long time the Gold Cup day experience was compromised by, well, the Gold Cup day experience.

While cramming 70,000 like-minded, raucous souls into a confined space made for a thrilling atmosphere as equine deities slugged it out for a place in the annals of history, 'crammed' is exactly how it used to feel.

You had to wade torturously between the bar and betting ring, manoeuvring between plastic-pint-glass-carrying bodies as you went.