JUST three more sleeps now, four if you are reading the digital version of this on Friday night. And if you are, time to go to bed now. The sooner you get to bed, the sooner the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle will be upon you.

Appetite-whetting and all as the build-up is, fascinating and all as the 2017 Cheltenham Festival is, the one that stretches before you now for as far as your inner-eye can countenance (how many times recently have you said, after Cheltenham?), it could have been even more fascinating.