One good horse who might yet make all the difference

One good horse. Ask any jockey what all the early mornings and late evenings are for, and that's the answer they'll give. The lure, the allure, of that one good horse justifies everything else, the nagging hunger, the jagged pain, the frustration, the self-doubt, the bloody hard work. For many jockeys, one would be enough.

Some jockeys get plenty, of course. Tom Scudamore basks in the unaccustomed heat of late October, warms himself through again with memories of Lough Derg, Dynaste, Grands Crus, Tamarinbleu, Madison Du Berlais, The Giant Bolster. Good horses all; any one would be enough. And then he returns to the horse he'll hopefully spend the whole season talking about without growing weary of the questions, the one the early mornings and late evenings have really been about, the one that might justify everything else all on his own. All a jockey wants is one good horse.

"He's the best I've ridden," says Scudamore, as matter-of-factly as he can manage. One very good horse, then.