Follow the action even if you are unable to make it to Prestbury Park

Be it beastly work, beastly children, or just the general beastliness of modern life, it is regrettably not possible for all of us to take a day off to travel to Gloucestershire on a weekday. But there are options for those watching at home or at work, not least The Telegraph’s live blogs, which are free to read and stuffed to bursting with tips for winners. Hopefully.

Other than that, ITV is once again giving the Festival a very fair spin across two channels. It will kick off each day with The Opening

Show on ITV4 from 9.30am: an hour-long preview and, let’s face it, most importantly a tipping programme with greats of the game such as Sir AP Mccoy and Ruby Walsh marking your card.

ITV’S coverage of the racing itself begins at 1pm each day, and it will show the first five races. If you have access to it, you can switch to Racing TV (on Sky Channel 426 and Virgin Media Channel 536 and in all good and, indeed, all bad turf accountants).

BBC radio will cover the first three days, from 1.15pm to 5.45pm on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra and half an hour on 5 Live from 3.15pm. It gives the racing a bigger show on Gold Cup day, from 1pm until 4pm on 5 Live and then mopping up on Sports Extra until 5.45pm. While the Beeb has disgracefully decided to point the great Cornelius Lysaght at the knacker’s yard, the radio legend will be in harness for this year at least. Gold Cup winner Andrew Thornton and multiple Festival winners Katie Walsh and Lizzie Kelly offer the inside track.