Vindication for Cheltenham changes: why we can look forward to far more competitive racing at next week's festival

In the middle of July last year, two months before the changes to this year's programme at the Cheltenham Festival were announced, my phone rang. The call was expected, and I spent half an hour chatting with the Jockey Club's racing director Richard Norris about how to make the festival more competitive.

I would absolutely not want to overstate my importance to the process. That would be the easiest thing in the world to do, because in truth it felt as though Norris had a sense by then of which way the Jockey Club was likely to go. He asked what I would think about turning the 2m4f novice chase into a handicap, or doing the same with the National Hunt Chase and opening it up to professional riders.

These ideas were already in the public domain and, through their familiarity if nothing else, they had the feel of spray painting a rusty car. Logical, positive, but making little difference to the underlying problem. Chris Cook expressed similar sentiments when the changes were announced and I nodded along.