The fresh-faced kid with wiser head: how Brendan Powell grew up and fought back

The Conditional was an aptly named winner for Brendan Powell at last week's Cheltenham Festival.

Powell was the conditional who seemed preordained for a glittering career. In 2013 the teenager often described as a champion in waiting followed his first festival winner with a double at Aintree three weeks later. A second festival winner the following year suggested he had truly taken flight.

So there was relief alongside the joy when the 25-year-old reclaimed the big stage having spent the preceding two seasons in the doldrums, a combined total of 23 winners being six fewer than he had posted in his first full season. It wasn't the trajectory envisaged for the jockey whose father, also Brendan, won the 1988 Grand National aboard Rhyme 'n' Reason.