Jamie Codd: perfect professional who is far from amateur

Amateur. Seldom has a word failed so spectacularly to define someone. It didn't sound right when Katie Taylor was throwing outrageous uppercuts for most of the last decade, nor did it fit when Rory McIlroy was outdriving his colleagues at the 2007 Open in Carnoustie. Jamie Codd is an amateur, but he is also the perfect professional.

Sunday evening, March 12, and darkness is descending on his Monasterevin home. Five rides earlier that day at Lingstown point-to-point has returned one winner. The sun is about to rise in the Cotswolds for four of the biggest days in Codd's career but the man himself remains relaxed. “I don't tend to get too excited about anything, and certainly not Cheltenham until I get there,” he says.

“I've learnt not to even begin thinking about Cheltenham until you board the flight on the Monday. I have missed it through injury and I would never, ever dream of taking it for granted. I never count chickens anymore. Anything can happen and you have to expect surprises.”