InterviewLaura Pearson
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'I know now my career isn't life or death' - how personal tragedies shaped a new outlook for Laura Pearson
Jonathan Harding talks to one of the rising stars of the weighing room
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Jonathan HardingReporter
![Laura Pearson: "It was the next stepping stone I was hoping to take, now I've lost my claim, and it's nice to be able to do it for Mr Beckett."](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fs3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com%2Fprod-media-racingpost%2Fprod%2Fimages%2F169_1008%2F72ad3ed67bba-horse-racing-laura-pearson-portrait.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
Laura Pearson: has faced serious challenges on and off the trackCredit: Alan Crowhurst
The first book Laura Pearson learned to read in English was Frankie Dettori's autobiography.
The aspiring rider had recently returned to Britain from France at the age of ten when she stumbled across the book, which charts the fascinating but turbulent life story of the world's most recognisable jockey.
Now 22, Pearson has experienced her own share of the peaks and troughs of her profession. It would be easy to believe her rapid journey from promising apprentice to Royal Ascot winner has been seamless.
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more inInterviews
- Sir Michael Stoute: 'I still enjoy it but probably not as much as I ever did - it can't be much longer'
- 'I put all my eggs in one basket and I had no-one when I left - I was just riding everywhere and anywhere'
- 'It was the best race I ever rode and I was very proud of it - but Sheikh Hamdan thought it was terrible!'
- Aidan O'Brien: 'The weirdest, strangest, most impossible things can happen in racing and in life'
- James Fanshawe: 'It's easy to go in your shell and grumble that things aren't fair - but you have to remember how well you've done'