'You need self-belief and to be prepared to take flak afterwards'

Anybody who has bet on horses for a significant length of time has experienced two emotions that are opposite sides of the same coin. Sometimes split by mere centimetres, one is the elation of seeing your horse roar home from the back and get up to win having led nowhere other than the line. The other is the agony of not quite getting there.

Talk to any punter about the hold-up ride and one name will come up more often than any other: Jamie Spencer. To some he is a hero, a master of the most thrilling way to win a horserace there is, while to others he is an infuriating source of anguish, with those positions usually dictated by how often the punter has been on the right side of the outcome.

There are few sights in racing more exhilarating than Spencer in full cry, delivering a perfectly timed run from off the pace to land the spoils. Like the 25-yard screamer, the perfectly-thrown 60-yard Hail Mary touchdown pass or a cartwheeling off-stump, it is blockbuster stuff that quickens the pulse.