'I wasn't any different when I had children - why should Snow Leopardess be?'

Returning to elite sport after motherhood has proved achievable by some notable cases, such as British rower Helen Glover taking European gold last month or Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce resuming her dominance in 100-metre sprinting.

So it came as little surprise to Marietta Fox-Pitt that Snow Leopardess should have been capable of winning a valuable race at Haydock and finishing a commendable fourth in the National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham just a couple of years after producing a foal.

"I thought she’d be fine, it never entered my head she’d be any different," she says. "I wasn’t any different when I had my children, I don’t see why she should be!"