SMOOTH Start certainly lived up to his name by giving me my first winner on just my third ever ride. From there it was certainly a career of ups and downs, going from riding a big race jumps winner in Britain to spending time in a US prison, to outright chronic drug addiction before recovering to rebuild my life.

I often say that after that ‘smooth start’ I went on to have a rough finish. While that may be true about my career as a jockey, in life itself, I am happy to say I find myself in a much better place right now.