IT was good to see some of the detail of next February’s Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown emerge during the week. €1.5 million in prize money, three Grade 1 races on the Saturday, four on the Sunday, and a new Grade 2 two-mile chase.

It’s as exciting a development as it was when it was first mooted, only now it’s only four months away. It should be a new focal point for the National Hunt season, not just in Ireland but in Britain as well, a high point between the high of Christmas and the high of Cheltenham, and before the Fairyhouse-Aintree-Punchestown spring rat-tat-tat.