On Wednesday October 21st I boarded a plane from Kuala Lumpur to Guangzhou and, after a brief stopover, I landed in Wuhan, in the Chinese province of Hubei, later that night.

I had been invited by the Wuhan Jockey Club to come and ride in their International Jockeys Invitational Race, something which I have done twice previously, in 2012 and 2013. This year I had been asked to help recruit some other riders who might be up for the challenge too.