Kerry Lee: Happy days for the schoolgirl diva who learned the value of patience

For the ambitious trainer operating on a non-industrial scale it's imperative that hope should spring eternal, otherwise the void can easily be filled by less productive emotions. Those quiet afternoons when potential runners are, of necessity, tucked up in their boxes can test the positivity of even the most buoyant, but for Kerry Lee, with her bustling 30-box yard in Byton, deepest Herefordshire, there's no danger of optimism ever running dry.

Witness last Saturday, when the boss of Bell House Stables ventured north to Haydock for one third-placed effort from Kings Monarch in the staying handicap chase – only her second runner of the week – but spent the return journey nurturing a dream that planted itself in her mind during a quiet moment on the paddock rail.

The horse that fuelled the fantasy was a once-raced hurdler whose only public appearance yielded seventh spot in a Chepstow maiden last month, but whose athletic good looks are giving Lee, if not quite sleepless nights, then at least a warm glow of excitement. The beast in question is a Flemensfirth gelding called Demachine and he certainly fills the eye.