On the fast track to the top and enjoying every minute of the ride

It is the scourge of any jockey based in the south, but even after a particularly troubled passage along the merciless M25 to Lingfield there is no fluster as Tom Marquand breezes towards the weighing room in the slipstream of his partner and fellow rider Hollie Doyle.

As she disappears to the sanctuary of the changing room, Marquand settles neatly on a bench outside the entrance, ready to discuss a year that started in Australia, has seen him race towards 100 domestic winners since he returned to Britain at the end of February and includes an important big-race win in the Northumberland Plate. Little wonder, then, that a smile is never far from his lips.

"I'm pretty chilled out but not too chilled out for my own good," he says of his sunny personality. "I certainly don't let things get too much for me."