I WOULD say, if you had to pick one, joy is probably the best emotion. Happiness is a bit broad and not exact but there’s something really pure and almost childlike about joy. It’s a difficult feeling to conceal and I definitely couldn’t after riding Hurricane Ridge in a schooling bumper at Punchestown last Friday week.

In the days beforehand, a few people were asking me “are you nervous?” Which for the record, is the best way of inciting someone to be so, but in truth, I wasn’t. Such is my pre-Cheltenham workload, even as I pulled into the car park, iPad on the dashboard, phone buzzing from a crevasse in my handbag, I hadn’t time to give it much thought. Until my arrival that is.