SO, it looks like the new race at the Cheltenham Festival – the worst-kept secret since Wally’s exact whereabouts – is going to be a mares’ novices’ hurdle. Or a mares’ chase. It looks like it’s going to be a mares’ something anyway.

Wait now for the status. If it is given Grade 1 status for its inaugural running, you have to hope that the prize money will be commensurate with such a status. That is imperative.

That will be 28 races then, with the sad demise of the charity race. Seven on each of the four days. Just two more races and you can have five days with six races each, but that wouldn’t be good. There have been denials a-plenty, but you have to hope that they resist the temptation to grab a fifth day.

Stop stretching the elastic. You just cannot define the point at which it will snap.