'I was lying in hospital and said to myself this is probably going to be it' - amateur rider hoping for champagne York moment

From lying in Leeds General Infirmary fearing it was all over to finally winning her body weight in champagne — Becky Smith hopes to complete a remarkable journey at York on Saturday.

The former women's amateur champion has been trying to win the Queen Mother's Cup and its unique prize for 13 years. But it took eight months of arduous rehabilitation to earn another chance.

Smith, 37, suffered a fracture and a posterior dislocation of her hip in a fall at Wetherby last October and she recalled on Friday: "Looking at the scans the hip joint looked like the windscreen on a car that had been in a crash."