How to make small fields work for you this winter

The term ‘tipping point’ is rarely one you want to hear, whether the subject is climate science or daytime television. But that is what it felt like last autumn, when many of us switched back into jumps mode.

I focus on chases above a certain level (0-120 and up) and here the seemingly subtle change – races that typically had five or six runners were now providing four – felt like a major shift in my day-to-day viewing.

It can be hard, when you are wrestling with the reality of a change that everyone else has already agreed is an extraordinarily bad thing, not to share in the pessimism. For the health of the sport, there is still a sense of worry as to where this trend leads.