'We set jockeys up for failure - just riding every day is doing well'

Page Fuller is not like most jockeys. She is a privately educated member of the Fuller's pub and hotel dynasty who, six years ago, took up a place at the University of Exeter to study economics.

Yet her love of riding horses, nurtured in pony racing and allowed to flourish during a gap year in France, tempted her away from university and into a life of 5.45am alarms, riding work for boss Jamie Snowden, Harry Whittington, Zoe Davison and whoever else requires her services, scrapping for opportunities, worries, injuries and miles upon miles on motorways – all for the very occasional success – that 95 per cent of the weighing room knows only too well.

This festive period, for instance, she went from her Newbury home to Wincanton (for two rides), Wetherby (one), Catterick (one), Newbury (two), Warwick (one), Musselburgh (one), Sandown (one) and Plumpton (two).