Racing's Best chance to show its good side

But if they are then the sport must have been in a sorry state in the old days. Racing has never been more in need of a shot in the arm than it is right now. Fortunately, this year's Festival is well-equipped to provide it.

One of the abiding memories of last year's meeting was the way Rooster Booster cut through the field like a chainsaw before blowing his Champion Hurdle rivals away between the last two flights.

The galloping grey is back with everything in his favour for a repeat bid tomorrow, while Wednesday stages a heavyweight showdown to put anything boxing can offer in the shade when Azertyuiop and Moscow Flyer square up in the Queen Mother Champion Chase.

And then comes what could be the most significant day that jump racing has witnessed in 30 years.

Anoraks will give you chapter and verse as to why Best Mate will still pale by comparison with Arkle even if he matches the legendary Irish chaser's feat of winning three Gold Cups in a row on Thursday.

So what? Henrietta Knight's gelding is as close to the perfect steeplechaser that most of us will ever see and, along with the peerless staying hurdler Baracouda, will take star billing on the Thursday of the last Cheltenham Festival ever to be run over three days.

The decision to make the biggest show in jumping even bigger from 2005 has alienated jumping traditionalists, who rightly point out that running the meeting from Tuesday to Friday can only dilute the quality of an event which is already perfectly formed.

But money remains the most persuasive language in sport and, in strict financial terms, asking the golden goose to lay another egg is a no brainer.

Cheltenham officials know full well that running the Gold Cup on Friday instead of Thursday next year will result in yet another full house and millions in added revenue with relatively limited additional overheads.

Leading Irish trainer Edward O'Grady understands the need for progress yet can recall days when the Festival trundled along at a rather more civilised pace.

"There was a time when you could leave a drink on the bar, go out on the lawn to watch a race, and come back to find it still where you left it," he said.

"Nowadays you need a stool and a lion tamer's whip just to get back into the bar."

O'Grady is right but that won't stop Festival regulars from queueing up to booze their way through 12,000 bottles of champagne and thousands of barrels of Guinness and lager this week.

Some tough sessions lie ahead, and on the eve of the Festival it is as well to consider both sides of what the headlines might throw up. Animal rights supporters will be on the alert if the unforgiving Cheltenham fences take their toll again, while it would be unwise to assume that Sir Alex Ferguson's plea for peace guarantees that Manchester United fans will abandon their plans to protest against John Magnier and JP McManus.

But the headline which racing can least afford to see this week is one which includes that phrase "suspicious betting patterns".

The Sporting Life columnist Jack Logan used to shrug off periodic spells of hand wringing over racing's integrity by arguing that "the chickens like a bit of grit with their corn".

Admittedly, the chickens have been fed more Tarmac than Green Giant of late, but is there any reason why punters should head to Cheltenham wearing hair shirts and apologising for being racing fans?

Of course there isn't. For as long as people bet on horses there will be cheats and chancers around who can't resist the lure of easy money.

If you can't accept that fact before putting your money down then stick to buying a lottery ticket and watching the paragons of virtue who occupy the Premiership.

But if you want to celebrate the very best of what racing has to offer, then join 50,000 other optimists who will unite at two o'clock tomorrow for a roar which signifies the arrival of spring like nothing else in sport.

Ask them if racing is a game gone bad. You won't get many takers - and that is something you can bet on with confidence.