Attendance 22% down on record of 2022 are headache that still needs a cure from new chief executive Guy Lavender

A sense that anything could happen on any given day – a sense that had perhaps been receding at Cheltenham’s festival in recent years – roared back with a vengeance in the West Country, leaving the bookmakers’ social media feeds searching for ways to say “We’re all RICH!” that did not rub too much salt into the punters’ wounds. “Firmly in front,” was how one press release put it, after “a week of mixed results” for the backers.

Quite the understatement. There were seven odds-on shots, equalling the record since it moved to four days in 2005. Just two managed to get across the line: Kopek Des Bordes, at 4-6, in the opening Supreme Novice Hurdle, and Lossiemouth, also a 4-6 shot, in the Mares’ Hurdle, the same day.