Northern powerhouse gearing up for French foray and fatherhood

An ordinary jockey but an extraordinary trainer, Richard Fahey sits with his girlfriend Amie Canham in Malton’s plushly refurbished Talbot Arms drinking nothing stronger than a Coke but grateful to have an ally with whom to sneak out for a crafty smoke.

Amie is, as the New Testament would have it, great with child and due to foal in October. “We're not having a crying baby,” Fahey says, “we've ordered a quiet one.”

Conversation turns to how to keep the little cherub asleep – that’s the baby not the trainer – and after discussing the merits of a tot of brandy Fahey leaps on my suggestion of using the horse tranquiliser ACP. “A couple of millilitres of that will do the job,” he beams happily.