'I've achieved what I wanted to and the most important thing was ending with a double green winner - the stars aligned'

Considering he rode in almost 7,000 races, has been part of the fabric of British racing for the past 22 years and can count a Grand National among more than 1,000 winners, it is staggering to hear Daryl Jacob say that he never considered himself a natural in the saddle.

From a family full of rugby players, riding horses for a living was by no means the conventional route for Jacob, but he chose the road less travelled and, through hard work and bloody-mindedness, heads into retirement as one of the weighing room's finest ambassadors.

Perhaps it would be more appropriate to be standing by the winning post at Aintree to look back on his high-achieving career in the saddle, but by the sounds of it his feet have yet to touch the ground since he weighed in for the last time on December 29, and it is between business meetings in London, tucked away in a quiet corner of a Mayfair pub, that the 41-year-old from Davidstown in County Wexford finally has the opportunity to reminisce.