The Turf | 14 March 2009

The Wagnerian tenor Lauritz Melchior was supposed to conclude an operatic scene one night by leaping upon a mechanical swan gliding across the stage. Unfortunately the appointed swan arrived, and departed, before he had concluded the key aria. More than a little miffed by the failings of the production team, Melchior turned to the audience and inquired acidly, ‘Anybody know the time of the next swan?’

I too have a fairly spectacular missed-bus problem. Although most readers will not see this article before Friday or Saturday, The Spectator’s production schedule requires the copy to be delivered on a Monday. This offering cannot therefore reflect on jump racing’s major event of the year, this week’s Cheltenham Festival. Apologies, but at least the events at Sandown last Saturday gave us a heady advance whiff of the brew we will hopefully have been savouring this week in the Cotswolds — good winners from Nicky Henderson and David Pipe, a master class in jockeyship from Tony McCoy and a well-celebrated Irish coup.