WE meet three days before the seismic event. Perched on a sofa in the café at The National Stud in Newmarket. Saffie Osborne tells me that when her agent, Tony Hind, let on that he was trying to get her a mount in the 250th St Leger, her retort was a caustic ‘good luck with that one, mate.’

“He didn’t even let me know when the ride on Highwayman was confirmed,” Osborne reveals. “I just spotted it come up in my list of booked rides. I’d presumed, if I was getting on anything, I was going to be on a 100/1 shot, so I thought, ‘wait a minute, that’s actually got a chance’.”