Barry Geraghty: 'Cheltenham is my playground – I just absolutely love the place'

It was a legitimate query. Would you not have asked as well? Sir Anthony McCoy was 40, Richard Dunwoody 35 and Peter Scudamore only 34. Adrian Maguire just 31. With the big four-oh looming in mid-September for the fourth most successful jump jockey of all time, there is no point pussyfooting around the issue. It needed to be broached.

But, just like when Richard Johnson tried to skip clear on Lostintranslation after crossing the Railway fences in the Scilly Isles Novices' Chase, Barry Geraghty was wise to the move. There was no way I was getting first run on him.

"We're not here to do a eulogy, are we?" asks the 39-year-old for whom retirement looked light years away when he delicately delivered Defi Du Seuil to scoop the aforementioned Sandown showpiece this month, the most recent of his 115 Grade 1 wins.