No preview nights, no endless build-up, no entries in some cases - and Royal Ascot is all the better for it

By the time you read this, the full list of entries for Tuesday's opening card at Royal Ascot will have landed. Just about. 

In an era when society demands to know everything all of the time, it's a relic of a bygone culture that we can get to the eve of Flat racing's most illustrious carnival and still be scrabbling around for who might turn up. As I write this, apart from next week's Group 1s, the only other entries available six days out are for four Group 2 races and two handicaps, the Hunt Cup and the Wokingham. 

Can you imagine the palaver if a similar scenario were imposed ahead of the Cheltenham Festival these days? How has generation social media allowed this outrageous, antiquated curiosity to prevail?