Sporting events can’t continue to rip people off or else attendances will dwindle like at Cheltenham - Sarah Todd

So, when he was down to run in the Cheltenham Gold Cup there was an overwhelming feeling that the tweed coat would have to be brought out and a ticket and hotel booked for the occasion.

It was an idea that fell at the first hurdle, as all that came up accommodation wise -including, in all seriousness, a wooden hut in somebody’s back garden - would have funded a holiday abroad in the sunshine.

It was back in 2011 that the amazing atmosphere of the Gold Cup was last experienced. Once again, there was a story behind this wearer of rose-coloured spectacles getting behind it. Well, it was more to do with the handsome amateur jockey Sam Waley-Cohen, who showed the professionals how to do it on his father’s Long Run. There was much emotion, with the family remembering Sam’s younger brother Thomas, who they had lost after a long battle with bone cancer and whose name was carried on the saddle.

As an aside, Sam helped raise more than £1m for a new children’s hospital in Oxford, where a ward bears his brother’s name, and became an ambassador for The Bone Cancer Research Trust. He retired from race riding after catching many by surprise with a 50-1 victory in the 2022 Grand National.

So, back to trainer Shark and his horse Hewick. As regular readers will expect, no online bet was made - rather a trip to town and a visit to the last remaining bookmaker’s office. But then, the day before the big race, news filtered out that he wasn’t going to run because the ground was too soft for him. So, it turned out that if the pilgrimage had been made, we wouldn’t have seen the big man and his horse anyway.

A replacement wager was made. Scottish trainer Lucinda Russell has curly hair the same colour as yours truly and doesn’t seem to give a jot when it looks in need of a curry comb. She also travels to the races in her motorhome, so her dogs can come with her.

Her horse, last year’s Grand National winner Corach Rambler, came home safe - which genuinely seems to be what Lucinda and her team care about the most - paying out each-way winnings for this most occasional and amateur of punters.

Summing up the week’s racing, it was so interesting to hear the ITV Racing team talk about attendance being down by around 11,000 at the prestigious race meeting.

Presenter Rishi Persad said the numbers couldn’t be dressed up and dared to question the huge costs of attending such sporting events and the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, with visitors charged an average £3,000 for a four-night hotel stay in Cheltenham.

The Independent newspaper did an excellent piece, talking to factory workers from Tyne and Wear who had been putting aside £50 a month for a year for the special day, with one commenting “I could have got almost three pints at home for this one pint”.

It looked at prices, such as £8 for a bacon roll, and the comments from hard-working people saying they are really having to think about what events they can afford to attend, be it a day at the races, a football match or a favourite singer’s concert.

Our own county’s forthcoming summer events should take note. Nobody likes to have their leg lifted and a return to good old-fashioned value for money will be the way to keep visitor numbers up. Be it concerts at stately homes or shows and sporting events, people are starting to tire of ending the day stuck in a car park for hours on end feeling ripped-off.

Finally, Yorkshire’s grass-roots horse racing community showed the big boys how to do it on Saturday, when local amateur jockey John Dawson and trainer Fiona Needham displayed the amazing Hunters’ Chase trophy won the day before at Cheltenham at the Hurworth’s Hutton Rudby Races, near Stokesley.

In fact, the bigwigs from the Jockey Club would have been well advised to attend the £15 per person (£12.50 in advance) and children under 16 free event. Time to get back to basics.