Move over Kojak and Columbo, All-Weather Championships day is back

You don't know what you've got till it's gone. Joni Mitchell would not be surprised to see the racing world getting so excited by today’s action on the Polytrack at Lingfield.

All-Weather Championships finals day had almost come to be taken for granted since the high jinks of 2014. Racing had never been staged on a Good Friday in Britain before a capacity crowd of 8,777 descended on Lingfield that year, with bugle fanfares, entertainment and winning favourites adding to the party mood.

Through the next five years the meeting quickly became an Easter holiday staple, for racegoers and punters – and for a television audience which could revel in a full three and a quarter hours of coverage on ITV4 in 2019.