Robin Oakley

Cheltenham Festival was a triumph

The emotion was heightened by the sense that it might be a long time before we gathered again

issue 21 March 2020

The socialite MP Chips Channon once noted in his diaries his feelings about an after-lunch snooze in parliament’s Library: ‘It was,’ he said, ‘a true House of Commons sleep. There is no sleep to compare with it — rich, deep and guilty.’

With racing by then almost the only spectator sport available, the 60,000 a day who turned up for this year’s Cheltenham Festival had similar instincts.

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