THERE are many hypotheses surrounding the point at which the National Hunt season really starts. Some say that it’s on the day after Punchestown, some say it’s at Listowel, others say that it’s on Mercedes Benz Chase day at Chepstow, or it used to be anyway, when the BBC cameras would roll into town and you’d see horses jumping fences on television for the first time since Galway Plate day.

There’s the Down Royal theory and there’s the Charlie Hall theory and there’s the whenever-the-rain-falls theory, which is on dodgy ground this season. The final theory, chronologically speaking, is the Paddy Power Gold Cup theory, that the National Hunt season starts with the Mackeson Gold Cup or the Murphy’s or the Thomas Pink, depending on your vintage or your priorities, and here we are.