The e-mail pinged into my in-box last week with a cheery electronic trill: “Help us to raise £7,000 so that we can go to Cheltenham.”

Well, I admire the optimism of anyone who believes they’re destined to reach the heights of the Cheltenham Festival on the back of a £7k investment, but that’s what National Hunt racing is like: even owners with a relatively modest budget dream of competing in horseracing’s greatest arena.

There are those that will tell you that jump racing isn’t all about Cheltenham – that their main ambition is actually to lead in a winner at Kelso, or Cartmel, or Fontwell Park. They are not necessarily telling lies, but they’re not quite telling the whole truth either. Because everyone secretly dreams that their modest maiden hurdler (like Penzance, our selection at Worcester on Sunday), or novice chase winner, can one day mature to surprise the crowd at the Cheltenham Festival – just like Norton’s Coin in the 1990 Gold Cup.

Despite the fact that some horses change hands for remarkable sums of money at the top end of the sport, jump racing can be a surprisingly level playing field. Take, for example, the contrasting histories of two runners in last season’s County Hurdle.

Having been bought for 320,000 guineas (£336,000) in 2023, Ethical Diamond was put into training with Willie Mullins and has since appeared twice at the Festival, collecting £5,830 for finishing fourth in the County Hurdle in 2025. We needn’t feel too sorry for his connections, who have collected career earnings of around £388,000 following recent wins on the Flat at Royal Ascot in June and last Saturday’s Ebor Handicap at York.

But how much more dreamy would it be to own Cracking Rhapsody, the dual bet365 Morebattle Hurdle winner at Kelso. Owned by John and Sheila Wright and trained by Ewan Whillans in Hawick, Cracking Rhapsody reportedly cost just 7,000 Euros (£6,068) and was just two lengths behind Ethical Diamond in the County Hurdle at Cheltenham – but 7 lengths in front of him when winning the Scottish Champion Hurdle at Ayr, taking his career earnings to £222,246 (a scarcely believable £216,000 more than his purchase price).

Both horses gave their owners a great run for their money at Cheltenham; it’s just that one cost a lot more money than the other. Either could turn up at Kelso for the bet365 Morebattle Hurdle in 2026, for which there is a £100,000 bonus for the winner if they can follow up in any race at the Cheltenham Festival.

Perhaps, I wondered, this could be the objective of the senders of my e-mail. So I read on…

Actually… it turns out that they’re from St Ronan’s Silver Band and that they’re holding a fundraising night at the Innerleithen Union Club, this Saturday, in order to send their senior band to the finals of the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain – to be held at Cheltenham Racecourse.

Further evidence, if any were needed, that everyone dreams of going to Cheltenham.