THESE are the weekends on which flat and National Hunt collide. The Vertem Futurity Stakes (the old, eh, Futurity Stakes) on the same weekend as Cheltenham’s first meeting of the season. Well, it is better than when Cheltenham clashed with British Champions’ Day.

Winx is on this (Saturday) morning too, and Leopardstown’s Eyrefield Stakes meeting is on this afternoon, and the beginners’ chase that has been won in the recent past by Presenting Percy and Very Wood and Don Cossack and Last Instalment and Jessies Dream and China Rock will be run at Galway tomorrow.