WHAT a difference a year makes; last Saturday I rode a televised winner aboard Gamesome at Haydock. Twelve months earlier, I was sat at home nursing a broken leg, watching on as Your Pal Tal, a horse I had been jocked up on, won at Musselburgh. Hopefully now that I am back among the winners this season I can push on and add to my tally.

My dad Mark is a partner at Anglesey Lodge Equine Hospital, which is located on the edge of the Curragh. As a young child I loved going to work with him, especially when I got to visit Jessica Harrington’s yard. In fact the very first horse I ever put my leg across was none other than the legendary Moscow Flyer. Head Lad Eamon Leigh lifted me onto the champion chaser in his stable but I was too young to appreciate it at the time. To me he was just another horse but now I realise how fortunate I was to get to sit on him.