She stops by the stable door of one horse and cracks two fresh eggs into the food it is just about to eat. An ideal vitamin boost apparently.

Meanwhile, another pampered thoroughbred is led into a stable that is fitted out as a solarium. She whisks off the horse's rug and it then luxuriates underneath the warmth and light.

Back home in the farmhouse kitchen, Ann's husband, George, who has been out exercising the horses, is scavenging for food. The pickings are slim and he finds the crumpets have gone mouldy. There is a bit of good-natured banter before he settles for toast and Ann puts on the kettle for coffee. She is the first to admit that she doesn't get a lot of time for shopping.

Life in the Duffield household is always hectic. It begins at 6am when Ann is first onto the yard, followed by the rest of the staff at 6.30. There can be anything up to 70 racehorses to be fed, watered and exercised, and Ann and George will ride out with them to check on their progress. Later, Ann will spend time planning where they will run, dealing with owners and 101 queries which seem to come up during the day.

The couple moved to Sun Hill Farm, on the outskirts of the village of Constable Burton, near Leyburn, in 2000 and set about transforming the working farm into a state-of-the-art racing yard. George Duffield, who is the ninth most successful jockey in the history of racing, retired in 2005 and now uses his experience to bring on young horses and assess their ability. Ann has been training horses since 1993 and is still one of the relatively few women trainers in Britain.

Says Ann: " Training racehorses is a tough job. It's risky financially and the hours are long. I've gone through some tough times over the years and at one time was down to just eight horses. It has taken a long time to build up the business."

This is a second marriage for both of them and when they got together, 10 years ago, there was quite a flurry of Press interest because George was so well known.

Ann is from Liverpool originally but has lived in Yorkshire for 20 years and has grown to love it, particularly the area where they live now. "Everyone is fabulous round about. We couldn't be in a nicer place."

When she was four, she was given her first pony, a Shetland called Bambi. When she grew out of this pony she spent all her waking hours at the local riding school, working for nothing. Her father was in shipping and he was also a bookmaker but she had no interest at all in racing as she was growing up. "I used to help out in the shop sometimes on a Saturday and I hated the bleakness of it."

Ann was desperate for a pony of her own and remembers saving up her pocket money and buying things like head collars so that she would be ready when the time came. Eventually, when she was 11, her parents gave in. Her father had a bet at York races and said that whatever he won, she could spend it on a horse.

"I just got stuck in. I did Pony Club things, hunting and a bit of eventing but racing still didn't feature." Then, when she was 17, her mother became ill and was unable to run the nursing home that was her business. Ann stepped in and took it over, built up the business and eventually sold it.

When she got married and moved to Yorkshire in 1988, Ann started buying and selling horses, mainly hunters and eventers. Then she bought a three-year-old racehorse which did well and which she sold, "and I made the big mistake of thinking this job was easy..."

She started training professionally in what was very much a man's world, although that didn't worry her too much. She has an 18-year-old son, AJ, and says that the hardest part of the job was fitting in being a wife and mother.

She met George at Ripon races in 1994. They became friends and in 1997 they decided to get together. It wasn't an easy time for either of them, but Ann says people in the racing business were very supportive.

The couple rented Hurgill Lodge, owned by Lord Zetland, while they looked around for somewhere suitable to buy, and then they found Sun Hill. They worked hard to build up the place and that includes George busying himself around the garden which he loves, particularly landscaping.

Their staff come from all corners of the globe, including nine from Trinidad where George used to ride in the winter.

Ann is keen to get away from the old image of racing. You don't have to be a millionaire to own a racehorse, she points out, you can own a tiny share (two-and-a-half per cent in a multiple ownership syndicate) and still have just as much fun going to meetings to watch it race. And those horses certainly get five-star treatment. No wonder the household shopping gets forgotten.


Jenny Pitman – determination to win that paid off on the racecourse


Jenny Pitman was one of the first women to obtain a trainer's licence under Jockey Club rules and led the way for other women like Ann Duffield to follow her into a male-dominated world.

She grew up on a farm in Leicestershire and told her father that if she couldn't spend all her time with horses she'd join a circus.

She left school at 15 to work as a stable girl, met the jockey Richard Pitman and they were married when she was 19.

They opened their own stables and she began her career as a national hunt trainer. Her plain speaking helped her to gain entry into a business where women were not welcome.

When the marriage failed she was left with two young sons and considerable financial difficulties. Her determination paid off and she became hugely successful.

In 1983, she became the first woman to train a Grand National winner – Corbiere. The following year she was the first woman to saddle a Cheltenham Gold Cup winner with Burrough Hill Lad.

She had another Grand National winner in 1995 with Royal Athlete and further success in the Gold Cup in 1991.

Jenny Pitman now writes novels about a woman racehorse trainer, Jan Hardy.