Punchestown has been as enjoyable as ever this year and still remains the Late Late Show of Irish jump racing — there’s something for everyone in the audience, with the menu ranging from hunter chases restricted to north Kildare farming families to top-class Grade One contests populated with recently-crowned champions from Cheltenham, Aintree, and Fairyhouse.

Despite the irritating traffic jam, the departing racegoers are united in a collective buzz. Earlier that afternoon City of Troy had annihilated a strong field to win the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket and Aidan O’Brien has suggested that he might well be the fastest horse he has ever trained. But despite City of Troy the next month of the embryonic Flat season will be lukewarm, largely dominated by unraced maidens and skinny-legged, anonymous two-year-olds.

So, unsurprisingly, the mind drifts backwards, to a time when excitement and anticipation was still to be found in what was yet to come. All the way back to Down Royal on the second Saturday of last November, the day the jumps season began in earnest with the first Grade One race, the Ladbroke Chase over three miles. So many unanswered questions remained on the drive up the M1 that morning.

What horses would dazzle during the long winter? Would anybody emerge to challenge the ever-deepening Mullins/Elliott training duopoly? How well would the sport weather the gathering legislative storms of controversy that threaten to push the ship onto the financial rocks in the coming years?

First stop: The Constitution Hill conundrum. A brilliant animal, potentially a horse for the ages, but will the ages ever come to know this? Summer speculation, often nudged along by his trainer Nicky Henderson, speculated that he might be sent chasing with a Gold Cup in mind. This caused flutters of excitement which ended abruptly when it was confirmed that he would be kept over hurdles, probably for the rest of his career. That his fans were surprised was the only real surprise.

Last season Constitution Hill won four races and the guts of €600,000 and he’ll probably ‘rinse and repeat’ in the same four races this time around. While economically logical and completely understandable this low-risk strategy will not a legend make and might someday deprive him of a rightful place at the top of the greatest of all time ladder.

Using Timeform ratings as a benchmark his provisional mark of 177 places him alongside Limestone Lad and Lanzarote but still six places behind other great hurdlers, including Night Nurse, Istabraq, and Monksfield. Ratings are heavily influenced by the quality of the beaten fields so if Constitution Hill simply replicates last season’s achievements, then his needle of greatness is unlikely to move much either way.

You hoped, in vain, back then for a more innovative campaign. Carry a welterweight in a handicap or, heaven forbid, race him in Ireland, neither of which the congenitally cautious Henderson was ever likely to contemplate.

The only hope left is that one of the emerging second-season hurdlers, particularly Impaire Et Passe from the Willie Mullins yard, can stretch his elastic tighter than last year’s crop of opponents. Impaire Et Passe was impressive when winning Grade One Novice hurdles in the spring and Mullins has a good yardstick through State Man to evaluate his chances of beating Constitution Hill. And yet he still decided to keep Impaire et Passe hurdling.

They won’t meet in advance of the Champion Hurdle in March and you recall on that drive north in November, that it’s been 60 years since an emerging novice from Ireland travelled to the festival and beat the unbeatable. Mill House never finished in front of Arkle again.

But first things first, the chasers, and at Down Royal that day there was a small, but ultra-select, field for that afternoon’s Ladbroke Chase. A fine opportunity to assess the off-season progress of Gordon Elliott’s Gold Cup hope, Gerri Colombe in a stiff test against multiple Grade One-winning, battle-hardened rivals such as Minella Indo, Conflated, and Envoi Allen. There is no place to hide today and you know deep down that the depth and interest of the staying chase division this season heavily depends on the outcome of that afternoon’s contest.

Last year’s Gold Cup winner, Galopin Des Champs, is a very short-priced favourite for a repeat with Gerri Colombe being the only other horse priced in single digits. With last year’s runner-up Bravemansgame making an unimpressive recent return when beaten by Gentlemansgame at Wetherby the spring festival Gold Cups could be two-horse races. If Gerri fails to impress today, it could be down to a boring one. “C’mon Colombe!” you shout, quietly.

Galopin v Gerri means Willie v Gordon, yet again. It’s still only early November and both are already closing in on a century of winners with the next best, Henry de Bromhead 60 behind. You wonder if this will be the season for an assault on the duopoly and quickly conclude that it won’t, while reminding yourself not to underestimate the potential and talent of Gavin Cromwell.

A farrier by trade, Cromwell has developed an imaginative approach to placing his horses and with each passing year assembles a deeper string and this winter he should shine even brighter with the likes of Flooring Porter, Vanillier, and the recent impressive Cork winner, Letsbeclearaboutit to rely on.

By now you’ve reached Down Royal and joined the long line queuing for the car park.

The season always starts and ends with a traffic jam you think, strong testimony to the present rude health of Irish racing. But your complacency is shattered by thoughts of the existential threats to the funding, and thus the future of the industry as we know and love it.

When Down Royal happened, legislation was heading to the committee stage in Dáil Éireann which, among other measures, looked likely to severely curtail the flow of advertising revenue to Irish racing, principally from dedicated satellite channels. When the heads of the bill were first published, the industry collectively shrugged its shoulders and hoped that somebody important would make all this go away.

Now comes the realisation that hope is never really a viable strategy and it could be a horrid off-course winter, particularly when you throw in equally worrying legislation in the UK and the growing influence of animal right’s activists who insist that everybody has the right to never be offended. Ever.

But enough of all that negativity for now. The queue has gone, the car is parked and Gerri Colombe is in the house. After today comes a lovely rhythm of racing, the Drinmore meeting at Fairyhouse and then a short hop, skip, and jump to the Christmas festivals. Not long then to the Dublin Racing Festival, Cheltenham, Fairyhouse, and Aintree. Then, finally, Punchestown, where the Gardaí have performed their usual magic, the traffic flows freely again and you’re home in good time to see Fierceness win the Kentucky Derby.

And over a cup of tea, you remember how it all worked out.