Intrigue in abundance as greatest show is back with a bang

Racing needs to deliver, and the potential is certainly there for some thrilling storylines

- Malik Ouzia

THERE ARE few sounds in a sport like the Cheltenham roar, but future Festival crowds will have to go some to match the one that will echo around the Cotswolds at half-past-one tomorrow afternoon.

A year on from a uniquely sterile Festival, normal service will not merely resume but be turbocharged by a sense of relief and reunion with this magical place as the runners set off in a fittingly high-class Supreme Novices' Hurdle in the shadow of Cleeve Hill.

The Greatest Show on Turf accolades still sheepishly attributed to what was merely a high-class performance in front of empty stalls 12 months ago will be validated once more and the so-called Olympics of National Hunt racing will be underway, free from the rules and restrictions that so detracted from the real ones in Tokyo and Beijing.

The picture is a pretty one, is it not? The caveat, of course, is that the racing itself must now deliver.

Concern has been building through recent seasons and, in particular, this one, that Cheltenham might have become too big for the good of the sport, the focus placed on the Festival by trainers, owners, and fans alike being to the detriment of the rest of the Jumps season. Too many races, the grumble goes, are viewed through the prism of what they might mean come March, too many horses campaigned conservatively with only the big day in mind.

The Olympics, after all, are a quadrennial occurrence. Cheltenham dominates every National Hunt cycle.