Finn Lambert and the phone call to Nigel Twiston-Davies that took him to Cheltenham Festival on Ballyandy

He’d left Ampleforth College – his family insisted that he completed his education – and was pursuing his dream as a work rider at the record-breaking Mark Johnston’s stables.

Too tall to ride on the Flat, Lambert was advised to call Nigel Twiston-Davies, the dual Grand National-winning trainer, who is renowned for encouraging young riders.

Tentatively, Lambert picked up the phone to Twiston-Davies’s long-standing assistant Carl Llewellyn who won the National on Party Politics and Earth Summit.

“What do you want to do?” asked Llewellyn.

“I want to be a professional jump jockey,” replied the young Yorkshireman.

“Come down and we’ll have a look,” said Llewellyn.

Interview over, Lambert arrived at the Twiston-Davies stables near Cheltenham on January 1, 2019. “I went there wearing my nice trainers and I’ve never made that mistake again – I went and bought some wellies due to all the mud,” he recalled.

Yet nerves were displaced by the friendliness of the Twiston-Davies team – and now Lambert’s hard work is to be rewarded with a dream ride on former Cheltenham hero Ballyandy at this month’s National Hunt Festival.

This is the top-class horse that won the Grade One Weatherbys Champion Bumper at the 2016 Cheltenham Festival under the trainer’s son Sam whose public disagreements with his father ‘Nige’ have become legendary.

Now 11, retirement was beckoning for Ballyandy – owned by the ever enthusiastic Options O syndicate – before Lambert, a 10lb conditional rider, was entrusted with the ride at Aintree’s Becher Chase meeting last December.

A fifth-place finish was followed by a fine second at Wetherby in January, to the delight of Lambert’s watching family, before the horse rolled back the years to win at, first, Fakenham, and then Chepstow last weekend.

The victories mean Ballyandy has qualified for the Pertemps Final at Cheltenham on Thursday week – with connections staying loyal with Lambert to take full advantage of his 10lb weight allowance due to his inexperience.

“It’s what you dream of as a child,” the 22-year-old rider told The Yorkshire Post in an exclusive interview. “When you’re riding, all you want is winners.

“If I was to get one at the biggest theatre of jump racing, there would be nothing better. I’m in a fortunate position that one of the best trainers in the country is giving me chances.”

Twiston-Davies senior’s mantra is a simple one. “The young riders work hard for us,” he told The Yorkshire Post. “If they’re good enough, we will give them chances.”

Lambert, who grew up in Middleham, says he was fortunate to have the chance to ride eventing horses in his childhood – his uncle and aunt James and Jo Lambert co-own JL Dublin who landed last year’s European Eventing Championships under North Yorkshire’s Nicola Wilson, the former Olympic medal-winning rider.

JL Dublin is also owned by the aforementioned Johnson’s wife Deirdre who encouraged the young Lambert, while out hunting, to ride out at her husband’s stables during his holidays and after completing his A-Levels. Describing the Ampleforth set-up as “a bit of a country club and not really a school”, he admits that he should have worked harder and hopes that he won’t have to fall back on his A-Levels in History of Art, Politics and Business Studies.

Yet eventing and hunting are very different disciplines to race-riding, hence why the-then teenager was quick to pick up the phone when former rider Russ Kennemore, a jockey coach who works with the Johnston team, advised him to contact Twiston-Davies.

“Nige is very fair. Says it as it is. If you cock up on one, he will say so and then move on. Just don’t make the same mistake twice. He’s not one to hold grudges. He understands that you make mistakes when you are young,” says Lambert whose only previous Cheltenham experience is riding at the annual hunter chase fixture. Sam (Twiston-Davies) is brilliant. Every race you do, he will go through it with you. I’m trying to learn the form and can ask him about any horse in the country and he will know exactly how it should be ridden.

“But the owners and Nige are very loyal and keen for me to ride Ballyandy at Cheltenham, even though Sam is the best jockey in the country, Sam is so supportive. He plays a big part in the whole operation, where horses should run, and where we can claim off them with the young lads in the yard. He’s not selfish in wanting to ride every horse.

“He’s a big team player. Sam and Nige do have their disagreements now and again, they have their shouting matches and then Nige proves he’s a genius as you have seen from all their big Saturday winners this season and stepping Ballyandy up in trip to three miles. Working for them, it feels like you are part of the family.”

He will be if Ballyandy rolls back the years on Thursday week at the iconic home of jump racing.