'You can see why people end up struggling - when you're trying to pay the electric bill, losing one ride can be massive'

The standard jockey's house is a thing of pristine simplicity: preferably new-build, spotlessly clean – albeit through underuse rather than good housekeeping – with the appliances still shrink-wrapped, the cooker and fridge unsullied by food.

Tom Bellamy took it a step further. For quite a while he refused to get himself a washing machine, but then his mum lives just over the road, and mums are quite good at that kind of thing, aren't they?

"I've got one now," he pleads, with precious little sign of genuine remorse, even at the age of 30. "I didn't rush into it, though. It was all quite handy."