When two Englishmen meet, wrote Samuel Johnson in the mid 18th century, their first talk is of the weather.
In the run-up to the 2007 Cheltenham Festival, you can bet it's the Irish too as the elements conspire to make an already puzzling clash - principally between Britain and Ireland - all the more intriguing.
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Continuous torrential rain means that the going will be the wettest, and therefore the most testing, in years, and certain horses simply won't pass their examinations.
Over 10 inches of rain has fallen at the track since mid-November, compared to the usual four, a fifth of it in the fortnight before the showpiece meeting.
Describing himself as "optimistic" (an unprecedented first day washout was only 14-1 early in the month), clerk of the course Simon Claisse says:
"It's my sixth Festival and I've seen nothing like it, but then nor has anybody else.
"It seems that the weather is improving at last, but it's not as though there have been downpours on dry ground, this place is saturated, and will take some time to dry out.
"It's meant challenges for us compared to previous years, but the course is in good condition - with a good grass covering - but it's in a very wet, good condition."
At Ladbrokes HQ in Harrow, West London, those that calculate the ante-post prices about yours and my fancies have been as much meteorologists as odds compilers of late.
"We have spent hours studying the weather forecasts as well as the form," explains the firm's David Williams, "and clearly a soft ground Cheltenham looks a dead cert.
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"As a result there are certain horses we are fancying, because they go on the soft, and others we don't really want to have on our minds.
"I suppose the biggest worry is that it suddenly stops raining, the wind blows and the sun shines and everything dries up but we are not expecting anything dramatic."
Williams indicates that as a result they are particularly wary of mud-copers/lovers like Straw Bear (Champion Hurdle), The Listener (Gold Cup), Nickname (Queen Mother Champion Chase) and Labelthou in their own World Hurdle.
Fancy prices on those are not available, but punters that like the look of reigning two-mile champion chaser Newmill, World Hurdle fancies Black Jack Ketchum and Mighty Man or Desert Quest (Champion Hurdle), all of which prefer drier conditions, will find themselves easily accommodated.
Apropos of nothing in particular, the last time conditions at Cheltenham were really testing was back in 1989.
That year, Desert Orchid was Gold Cup favourite, carrying much expectation, but with critics that doubted his ability to perform at the track (compared to elsewhere), or on the prevailing heavy going.
He won, but only just.
They are calling Kauto Star, the big race favourite that's carrying much expectation but also many doubters, the new Desert Orchid.
A sign perhaps.
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