'It was nice to step out of the bubble – I learned a lot about myself'

It is not so much the second coming as a coming of age. Hayley Turner is back, bursting with energy, loving the breeze in her face as she races down the track. This time, however, she will do it on her terms.

Two years out of the saddle has lent perspective to Turner, who swapped saddles for sofas towards the end of 2015. A place on the ITV Racing team was one of many new experiences for the most successful female jockey Britain has ever seen. Lessons have been learned, in particular that life is for living. In the previous 15 years there had been too much giving.

It’s a sobering thought that Turner, now 35, in effect rode herself into the ground. She was much feted, a pioneer in a deeply conservative orbit, the object of endless fascination with a media preoccupied by the seductive theme that she was a woman taking it to men on equal terms.