'A lot of people at the races even know my name because of Altior'

Early morning at Seven Barrows, Hussain Mohammed is readying Altior for second lot and the mood in the box is somewhere between a mutual appreciation society and a lovers' tryst. Altior is gleaming in the sunshine that has recently seen off the Beast from the East, his hooves spick and span, not a solitary shaving in his well-bred tail; Hussain looks him up and down with evident pride and the two bond happily.

As the handsome bay leans in lazily for a pat and a stroke, it's hard to imagine this is the same brute who in a few days' time will attempt to cut down the tall poppies of the two-mile steeplechasing scene with a few ruthless swishes of his monstrous talent. In the meantime, he barely looks ready for a cup of cocoa, let alone two ascents of the demanding all-weather strip, but Hussain reassures us that this relaxed demeanour cohabits quite naturally with the unflinching work ethic of the professional racehorse.

Dastagir Hussain Mohammed – to give him the full name that was long ago abandoned as too complicated for a racing yard – smiles as Nicky Henderson's assistant trainer Toby Lawes saddles up his best friend and prepares him to join the string. Hussain smiles a lot, albeit with the unspoken understanding that he may stop smiling if disloyalty to Altior is detected. He is devoted to the dual festival winner, although he sheepishly confesses that it was not always so, certainly not when former head lad Dan Saunders foisted the son of High Chaparral on him on arrival in the yard, shortly before his Market Rasen bumper win of May 2014, long before he became the champion he is today.