'It felt like one big family at the yard as everybody was supportive'

It has to be Luca Cumani. I was a young 16-year-old when I went there – before that I'd done weekends at Milton Bradley's. I left school on the Friday and turned up the following Monday for a five-week trial – I went from Wales to Newmarket in a heartbeat. Then I went to the Racing School for nine weeks and I was lucky enough that Luca wanted me back, and that's when I learned the ins and outs of racing and how to conduct myself.

It was a great place to learn and Luca was exceptional – he was a very good rider in his own right – and when I started to ride he gave me five steering jobs. They were all odds-on shots and every lad in the yard back then used to have a bucket for all your equipment. After my first five winners they spray-painted my bucket with the words “Odds-on Weaver”. It stuck and people still call me 'Odds-on' to this day.

It felt like one big family at Luca's because the whole team was incredibly supportive. It was a massively important time for me growing up and I was lucky there was such a great bunch there – from the head lad all the way down. Ray Cochrane was number-one jockey at the time.