IF you think the retail build-up to Christmas keeps getting earlier and earlier every year, try being a racing fan as the countdown begins to the National Hunt season proper.

It feels as though for weeks - well before some of the flat season’s biggest autumn Group 1s - you cannot look left or right on social media without being hit with tips and opinions on a Cheltenham Festival that is still a full four months away tomorrow. The appetite for jumping chat and content has apparently never been greater.