With a two-year residency at the Colosseum in Caesars Palace said to be beckoning, Rod Stewart was always a good bet to get the racecourse ground in Bank Holiday party mood on Sunday in the latest Newbury Live event.

The racecourse has hosted a series of music events to bring racing days to a lively end, with Tom Jones lined up for the CGA Ladies Day. But Stewart’s appearance was the first stand-alone concert, with the old rocker hardly needing the horses as a warm-up act after almost 50 years on the road.

On a cool, cloudy night, a large good- humoured crowd was brought to its feet by the familiar sound of The Stripper before the band ploughed straight into Love Train, from Stewart’s recent soul classics album. One of the most distinctive voices in popular music is nowhere near as powerful these days as in his Jeff Beck/Faces glory days, when it seemed a microphone was superfluous. On Downtown Train and Some Guys Have All the Luck, he struggled to be heard above his excellent band, which featured two drummers and brass section.

But despite the fact that he still surrounds himself on stage by beautiful micro-miniskirted back up singers and musicians, you remain in awe of Stewart’s stagecraft as he delivers hit after crowd-pleasing hit.

“This one’s from 1969,” he announces before delivering a still moving Handbags and Gladrags. The wonderful You Wear It Well is introduced with the reminder, “I wrote this in Ronnie Wood’s mum’s council house.”

It’s a show of few surprises, apart perhaps from the inclusion of Elmore James’s Shake Your Money Maker, from the still-to-be-released album of blues covers, and an understated version of Every Picture Tells A Story.

There are no longer songs from his multi-million selling American Songbook albums, when he used to don a DJ and bring on an orchestra. But you know things will be brought to an end with Maggie May and a mass sing song to Sailing. Sadly, First Cut is the Deepest has dropped off the set list, with Forever Young performed as a tribute to his new son.

No doubt they will love the show at Hyde Park and football stadiums over the summer. But, leaving the racecourse, you can’t help reflect that this year Stewart shirked the gamble of joining his old mates The Faces, who in his absence signed up Mick Hucknall to sing and will be headlining at Great Tew in the summer.

How good it would have been to see the singer reunited with Woody, Mac and Kenney one last time to remind us that he once belonged to a band that on a good night could rival the Stones and the Who, and were able to count themselves as John Peel’s favourite live band.

With Ron Wood temporarily free from his Rolling Stones duties, it appears to have been a one-off chance missed. It all fell apart because of money, apparently. He was very good at Newbury, but in truth Stewart has never been great since 1975 when he turned his back on the band that made him.