Dan Skelton: 'I'm exhausted because I can't turn my brain off - if I stopped winning it would be mental torture'

Dan Skelton is wearing a fluffy white dressing gown. That is far from normal for an interviewee, yet this is a far from normal interview.

For a start, Skelton is not in his office or at a racecourse but instead sat on a lounger by a pool in Kitzbuhel. The view through the windows shows the Austrian Alps are largely free of snow, meaning the championship-leading trainer and his daughter were forced to head high into the mountains for the first full day of a welcome holiday. 

When the snow turned to slush they returned to their hotel, which is where Skelton temporarily has sole responsibility for young Florence, whose mother Grace has stayed at home, having taken a previous dislike to skiing. It is also where Skelton now begins talking about a period of a life that may soon have one of its defining moments.