STRAP yourself in, prepare for take-off. These final days leading up to the Cheltenham Festival are usually spent anticipating the unknown and uncertainty of what lies ahead. Over the past week, for a number of us in the racing community, it’s been a case of those same feelings, but resonating around something many thousand miles away from Prestbury Park.

The copy for this column is coming to you from row 15 of a Boeing 777-31H, poised for take-off on a runway just off Dubai International Airport’s Terminal 3. The cabin crew have taken their seats and, finally, it seems the starting tapes are in sight.