The current estimate for constructing a new Weighing Room at Kelso Racecourse, required by the BHA before then end of 2027, is roughly £2 million.

And while there are various avenues to explore to finance the project, each year in March we have a golden opportunity to pay for the whole thing with relative ease. All we need to do is put the names of seven or eight Cheltenham Festival winners on a piece of paper, hand it over to a bookie, and Bob’s your Uncle…

Actually, most of the major bookmakers have a £1 million ceiling on pay-outs for a single horseracing bet, so make that two slips of paper at two different bookies.

With 28 races at the Festival to choose from, how hard can it be?

You have to follow your heart at Cheltenham, so we are going with the assumption that 2026 is going to be the year of the great British resurgence. That means that a British trainer will win the first race, the Supreme Novices Hurdle, and who better to get the ball rolling than Philip Hobbs and Johnson White, the training combination that took last week’s bet365 Morebattle Hurdle. Sober Glory jumps and gallops all day and, in a strong renewal, is currently attractively priced at 14/1.

I was disappointed not to welcome Grand National favourite Iroko to Kelso last Saturday, with connections obviously thinking the Ultima Chase (6/1 on Tuesday) is his for the taking. Similarly, the Irish trained Sixandahalf was redirected from Kelso’s big race at the last minute – in favour of running under a lesser weight in the County Hurdle on Friday (20/1). Lucinda Russell has supported Kelso with lots of runners all season, one of the most interesting being King Of Answers – a winner on his latest outing on Timeform Chase Day; he’s 14/1 for the National Hunt Chase on Tuesday.

No one is saying that Willie Mullins won’t have a few winners to give Irish racegoers something to shout about – Kopek Des Bordes, Final Demand and Majborough all being likely candidates at short prices. But if any trainer is going to breath air into the British challenge, it’s Dan Skelton who’ll win the Champion Hurdle with The New Lion. While he’s also too short in the betting to interest us much, the same stable saddles Kabral Du Mathan in the Stayers Hurdle on Thursday at 5/1.

There’s no finer looking horse in training than Fergal O’Brien’s Sixmilebridge, our selection at 9/1 in the novice handicap chase on Thursday, while the Ruth Jefferson trained Lavida Adiva (another Kelso winner) can surprise a few at 18/1 in the Pertemps Hurdle. The accumulated odds of the seven horses in bold is nearly 38,000,000 – 1, so two three-pence bets is all it will take to fund the new building.

Or pop the selections into a 1p each-way Goliath costing, £4.84, with this week’s selection – the Hawick based Star Of Guiting (22/1) at Sandown on Saturday – and it won’t matter too much if one or two of the aforementioned fail to trouble the judge.