IT was a meeting set to be dominated by a series of overwhelming odds-on shots, various divisional championships were shorn of their usually competitive feel with runners at a premium and on top of that there was no crowd to fill the void left by any one-sided affairs.

This was the build up to the Cheltenham Festival but of course the four days at Prestbury Park delivered an experience quite different to what a large majority of racing folk were expecting in the lead up to the season defining fixture.