A potential new way for fans to make Cheltenham their final resting place

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In Monday's email Chris reflects on a proposed new columbarium to be built at Cheltenham – and subscribers can get more great insight, tips and racing chat from Chris every Monday to Friday.

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As parting gestures go, having your ashes scattered at Cheltenham is an unbeatable way of showing your love for the great game. Anyone who's been a racing fan for a good few years will have heard stories of someone who made this their final request, may even have considered asking friends and family to do the like for them.

But it has the disadvantage that your final resting place is large and indefinite; you become part of the good to soft, soft in places. Some would prefer a tidier departure, with perhaps an identifiable spot for loved ones to visit and remember.

For any such people, the Front Runner has good news. Cheltenham racecourse has applied for planning permission for a columbarium.

If, like me, you hadn't previously encountered the word, a columbarium is a building with niches in which funeral urns are stored. They have not so far become fashionable in Britain but are evidently a familiar concept in Europe and the US.

"Fans will be able to pre-arrange their final resting place in advance of their passing, knowing that they will secure their personal space in their chosen location at the racecourse." So it says in the planning application submitted by the racecourse recently.

Nothing is set in stone, as it were. The Front Runner understands that Jockey Club Racecourses are interested by the idea but not committed to it yet. If, as seems very likely, planning permission is achieved, discussions about feasibility and final details of the structure will continue.

Cheltenham's columbarium would be placed at the entrance to the racecourse, to the left of the bridge walkway leading to the Centaur building, which it will face. The wall could not be inside the racecourse, as surviving relatives would want the opportunity to visit on any day of the year; the interior at Cheltenham can often be a building site during the six-month off-season and therefore barred to visitors.

An artist's impression of the proposed columbarium at Cheltenham, submitted as part of the track's planning application

The proposed site seems a fine choice. On one side, thousands of racegoers pass each raceday. On the other lies the walkway which every runner must follow from stable block to pre-parade ring.

As envisaged in the planning documents, the wall would be ten metres wide by 2.3m high, allowing for 700 niches. I gather there is still scope for that number to be revised as the subject is explored.

For all that this is a new idea to me, it makes total sense that people would choose the home of jump racing as the final resting place for their ashes. The surprise is not that this is being considered, but that it hasn't come up before, at Cheltenham or at other hallowed sports venues, like Old Trafford, Anfield, Lord's or Twickenham.

I gather that similar discussions are in fact going on elsewhere and that other such planning applications will turn up from time to time. Columbarium is going to become a familiar word for those who read the sports pages.

You could imagine such a thing attracting demand at many tracks besides Cheltenham. There's Aintree, of course. Epsom and Newmarket obviously have special significance for those who prefer Flat racing.

How many people have had the time of their lives at Cartmel, Chepstow, Exeter, Kelso, Catterick, Ripon or Salisbury? I can easily imagine any of our racecourses being a deeply special place for someone. In the end, they might all have to acknowledge demand and provide the service that Cheltenham is now contemplating.

Monday's picks

I feel that Mr Scargill has rather unhelpfully raised the bar by picking a 22-1 winner at the Ebor meeting last week. On my first day back in the saddle, is it too much to hope that Simulation Theory (7.40)can get me a winner straight away? Probably.

Anyway, he is with an in-form trainer in Declan Carroll (up to 21 per cent this month, having been 0/21 in May). He was claimed after beating a single rival at Redcar a month ago and it would clearly be a mistake to get excited about that achievement but I still think he has been lucky not to get his rating moved at all.

Taking this free-running sort back down in trip seems like the right move and Carroll also dispenses with the hood worn by the chestnut in his three races this summer, while restoring the tongue tie that was tried early in the year. The market is sceptical, allowing Simulation Theory to stew on 9-1, but there's a good chance we'll see an improved showing here. He was rated 10lb higher at the end of last year.

Christopher Mason is a trainer worth paying attention to just now, having had four winners from 12 this month, the first time since last August that he has had more than one winner in a single month. His Gilt Edge (1.50) appeals in Chepstow's opener.

Her keeping-on effort at Ffos Las 11 days ago was her best run since last year and now William Cox returns to the saddle, the jockey who guided her to her two most recent wins last summer. She seems ready for this step up to seven furlongs, which should not be a challenge to her on a quick surface.

For what it's worth, Mason also has the unexposed On Edge in a classified stakes later on the card.

Three things to look out for today . . .

1. George Scott has given himself every chance of finding the right conditions for Alfred Cove, making his first start for the trainer at Brighton today. The three-year-old was declared for a handicap on yesterday's card at the seaside track but was taken out in favour of this maiden contest over 165 yards further. Winless but progressive in four starts for David O'Meara, Alfred Cove has been gelded and now wears a hood for the first time.

2. Why does today's card at Ballinrobe benefit from the participation of Davy Russell, who is fairly picky about his rides these days and hasn't been in action for over a fortnight? It's surely because of Knocknagappagh, a six-year-old mare owned and bred by the jockey's father, Jerry. She ought to be favourite or close to it for this mares' maiden hurdle, having been second of 14 in a similar race at Sligo when last seen. The Russells teamed up for success at Downpatrick with Youghal By The Sea a few years back.

3. Interesting debutant of the day is Prakasa, a Roger Varian-trained three-year-old filly who makes a late start to her career in a novice contest at Southwell tonight. Perhaps there was no point rushing her, as she's a half-sister to Without A Fight, who has improved with time and distance, beating John Leeper to York's Silver Cup last month at the age of five. Prakasa is hooded for this debut against five rivals.

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The Front Runner is our latest email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, a four-time Racing Reporter of the Year award winner, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content