Inside the pressure cooker: what it's like for a small yard with Ascot hopefuls

On the longest day of the year trainer Richard Spencer has been making good use of the extra daylight. It is the final day of Royal Ascot, and there is plenty to do.

Three horses are making their way from Spencer’s base at Sefton Lodge Stables on Newmarket’s Bury Road to Ascot, meaning an even earlier start than usual on Saturday.

“The staff arrived at 4.30am and fed the horses who are going racing,” says Spencer in a manner far too coherent for shortly after 5.30am when this bedraggled reporter arrived.