Only 357 days to go...

This time last year I typed the blog headline Katchit, Katchit, Katchit. To avoid repeating myself, I'm choosing Katchit, Denman and Mister McGoldrick as my three Cheltenham highlights but there are many more than three reasons to be cheerful after last week and here they are:

1. Venalmar going so close in a bid to give Kayf Tara his first Festival winner and being beaten by an equally lovely horse in Fiveforthree. Both have chaser stamped all over them and I can't wait to see them back next year in the Royal & SunAlliance.

2. Brave little Fairalong looking like he was going to be completely tailed off in the Queen Mother but battling on to take third.

3. Interviewing Katchit's breeder Dominic Burke on Wind-stopped-play Wednesday and meeting Katchit's dam (both pictured), the snowy white Miracle. Dominic's enthusiasm for racing and breeding is contagious. Here's hoping his three-year-old half-sister to Katchit, called Miracle Seeker and trained by Clive Cox, wins lots of races on the flat this year.

4. Two winners for Willie Mullins, the Bumper king.

5. Two winners for the equally nice David Pipe.

6. Extraordinarily managing to tip three of the four championship race winners on the H&H website (Katchit, Inglis Drever and Denman).

7. Vicarious Jilly Cooper-stalking via Catherine.

8. Two days in the Racenews portacabin with Ed, Mark, Pete, David, Carl and Ben.

9. Binners on Festival radio. Actually this should go straight to the top of the charts.

10. Leprechaun hat egg cups in the ITM press pack. One of the strangest but most practical freebies I've ever been given.

11. I was only going to do ten but how could I go without mentioning the breakfasts cooked by Julian, Ed and George in the Big Brother house? Superb.

12. And how could I forget Master Minded? I've started so I'll finish.