Staying power the key to super Sam - and his trainer

The electrician has arrived at High Beck Lodge to fix a few of the strip lights in the barn, because it's a little gloomy in there at the moment. No matter; Jedd O'Keeffe has spent his whole training career straining his eyes for that fugitive light at the end of the dark tunnel. These days, he knows exactly where to find it.

It's in the corner box, a ball of muscle with a gleaming golden coat, the brightest hope O'Keeffe has ever had in his yard. Sam Spinner lifts his head as his trainer approaches, a tall horse, a narrow horse but with a back broad enough to bear the weight of expectation, a new star in an old stone-built yard that has seen better days but might be on the brink of its best day of all.

O'Keeffe is a small potato in the jumping field – most of the horses in the yard just outside Middleham are Flat campaigners – but in Sam Spinner, second favourite for the Sun Bets Stayers' Hurdle at Cheltenham, he has a real contender for glory. Much of O'Keeffe's career has been spent hunting for scraps, relying on the encouragement of a benevolent accountant, fighting the good fight against long and discouraging odds, but the struggle availeth now. It feels good, as it should.