'You have to celebrate the good days - because there are a lot of bad ones'

You are unlikely to happen across the Beast of Exmoor, a phantom cat believed to have roamed the wilds of the national park since the 1970s, but you might be able to find a Welsh Grand National winner.

The Two Amigos is often seen hacking around Exmoor, once a royal hunting forest sprawling across Devon and Somerset, where trainer Nicky Martin is based at around 1,300 feet above sea level. She is just a stone's throw from the village of Withypool, so it is no wonder half the population backed the local celebrity before he won at Chepstow.

There can be few more beautiful places to train – nor more brutally exposed when the weather turns nasty. Luckily, Racing Post photographer Edward Whitaker and I do not have to contend with the snow and sub-zero temperatures that have previously isolated the area from the world, but as we approach the yard nearly two weeks on from The Two Amigos's triumph, it is blowing enough for the wind to catch a flag flying the racing colours of Martin and her partner John Simpson.