"It can take me 20 minutes to take my hat off if it's been windy"

I normally wake up two or three minutes before the World Service starts. I make a point of laying in bed for two minutes to wait for the whistle that signals it’s time to go over the top. Because it never goes I know it’s not going to be a bad day.

I listen to Radio 4 for half an hour and go through the previous day’s results and go through some pedigrees. Some people like to check the updates and annotate the page, but the updates I’m most interested in are the ones that happen after we’ve bought the horse.

Most mornings I go for a run but I’ve had training problems of late so I’m laid up for the time being. I’m generally looking at horses by eight o’clock and today is no exception. I like to see as many as I can because I do a lot of mating plans.