'I'll be surprised if I see anything better than Frankel in my lifetime'

Phil Smith's first few months as a handicapper were so unhappy that he thought seriously about jacking it in and returning to teaching.

For a long-time racing nut with a penchant for figures it should have been the dream job, but the solitary life of a handicapper proved less agreeable than Smith imagined after 23 years in education, latterly as a maths teacher in Solihull.

"For the first three months I thought I'd made a terrible mistake," he recalls. "Working from home was so lonely, and if the phone rang it was someone complaining. Every Friday lunchtime I used to go back into school for a cup of tea and a chat.