IT seems so, so, distant now that just two weeks ago we were all in happy abandon in anticipation of the greatest four days in jump racing. Churchill’s line “something about the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man,” was in our focus then, while now the landscape ahead looks like a no man’s land, where deaths are guaranteed and we don’t know from which direction this enemy approaches.

It’s not been the greatest week for racing. Those who travelled to Cheltenham quickly became a target for abuse as the situation here grew graver day by day.