Chelmsford on a Saturday morning proves a surprise hit - but the big issues still need to be solved

Arriving at the racecourse before nine o’clock is not particularly unusual for a racing journalist when racing is taking place. What was rather more out of the ordinary at Chelmsford on Saturday was the sight of the horses leaving the stalls for the first race not much more than an hour later.

However, British racing is engaged in all sorts of new experiments at the moment. Beginning fixtures at mid-morning is one of them, as part of the initiative to declutter Saturday afternoons and allow the sport to better promote its premium offerings to punters and the public.

One might argue taking such action on the same day as the Grand National was a little unnecessary – there is no bigger race in the year and the focus will always be on Aintree regardless of what is happening elsewhere – but, nevertheless, Chelmsford elected to move its fixture forward to ensure it finished before the protected two-hour window came into force at 2pm.