Thanks for 2021, Rachael. You somehow managed to make a wretched year bearable

It has been another tumultuous year in racing. So much has happened, and the Racing Post has compiled a list of the 20 most influential figures in British and Irish racing during 2021. Here is the number one: Rachael Blackmore.

My first consultation with Rachael Blackmore was early January 2014. It was an interview for the point-to-point supplement that used to accompany the Irish edition of the Racing Post on a Wednesday. She was so unfamiliar to me that I spelt her name wrong. It turned out there are, in fact, two As in Rachael.

As she overtook Max Verstappen to become the first Irish person to win the BBC's World Sport Star of the Year on Sunday night, an extract from that interview came flooding back to me.