Hello, and welcome to day two of the festival. And, as Cheltenham themselves point out, what a difference a day makes. When my son got in touch with me worried about whether the racing was going to be on I reminded him that I was there in 1987 when the delayed Gold Cup, won by The Thinker, took place after a sustained snowstorm in the middle of racing. The Sporting Life, where I worked in the 1990s, was still being sold back then and it was a pleasant surprise to see a printed edition of the paper, which closed in 1997, being handed out yesterday by Mike Tindall at Paddington station.

Good morning from Cheltenham, where the – somewhat surprising – weather news is that the racecourse received a light covering of snow earlier today. Low-ish temperatures had been predicted after a (relatively) mild day on Tuesday, but actual white stuff dropping out of the sky was not in many punters’ plans, and brought back memories of the festival in 2013 when frost covers were needed to save the meeting and the daytime thermometer hovered around zero all week.

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