Kevin Stott becoming addicted to big-race winners ahead of Hello Youmzain’s bid to repeat Betfair Sprint Cup win at Haydock

He was conflicted as he came over seventh on stablemate Major Jumbo – he was proud of the horse, which he had previously ridden to success, but frustrated connections opted for jockey James Doyle’s greater experience.

Now it will be Stott in the big-race saddle as Hambleton trainer Kevin Ryan’s stable star attempts to become the first dual winner of Haydock’s Group One sprint since the late Sir Peter O’Sullevan’s Be Friendly prevailed in 1967, the contest’s inaugural year, and then 12 months later.

He does so buoyed by his dramatic win on Hello Youmzain in Royal Ascot’s Diamond Jubilee Stakes when the Danish-born rider – and one-time football trialist at Tottenham Hotspur – proved his big race credentials and left no-one in racing in any doubt that he is, in fact, a special talent.

Since then the horse was fifth in the Darley July Cup at Newmarket behind Oxted, a notable non-runner today, before finishing second to the highly-rated Space Blues in the Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville.

Both races were on quicker than ideal ground and Stott is hopeful that underfoot conditions – the going is soft on Merseyside – will play to the strengths of the four-year-old, whose willpower means that he is tough to past when in the lead.

“He ran a very good race in France on ground that was a little bit too quick,” the jockey told The Yorkshire Post.

“He won there (Haydock) a couple of times and the ground is on the soft side which is a plus.

“It’s a fair six furlongs – normally the best horse always wins. He has a very high cruising speed and it takes a lot for horses to come from off the pace and win.”

With the benefit of hindsight, and passage of time, Stott has the maturity to be more philosophical about the jockey merry-go-round of 12 months ago.

He is also searingly honest. “I am very glad that he (Hello Youmzain) did win but I was upset that I wasn’t riding him after winning on him earlier in the season at Haydock. It’s one of those things. It happens. It won’t be the last time. That’s racing.”

A high-profile Royal Ascot win, followed by Stott winning the subsequent Wokingham Stakes on Hey Jonesy to complete an unlikely big-race double on the day of his sporting life, has certainly helped.

So, too, the realisation that rides on Hello Youmzain are to be enjoyed – the colt will be retired at the end of this season by the joint ownership team of Haras d’Etreham and Cambridge Stud to take up stallion duties in both New Zealand and France.

As such, today’s test, in which Tim Easterby’s Art Power will look to make up for a disappointing run in York’s Nunthorpe Stakes, is likely to be Hello Youmzain’s penultimate start.

While Sir Michael Stoute’s Dream Of Dreams, runner-up to Hello Youmzain in that pulsating, three-way head-bobbing finish to the Diamond Jubilee, looks to follow up his impressive win in Newbury’s Hungerford Stakes, Stott believes his horse is a worthy favourite.

There is also one other factor. Now that he has one Group One triumph to his name, the rider, who lives in Thirsk, wants to become a multiple winner of the career-defining headline races. His current winners to rides strike rate is 18 per cent – the highest of his career – and Stott attributes this, in part, to his Royal Ascot success. “Every jockey in the weighing room wants to win Group Ones,” he explained with the quiet determination that has become his hallmark.

“When it happened to me, it gave me a lot of confidence. All the horses I have been riding are in good form and a lot of trainers and owners have put a lot of support in me.

“But it’s like everything else – winning is addictive – and the same is true of these Group Ones and so on. When you do win a big one, you want to win another one.

“Like any sport, when you get the taste for it, you always like more. You see it all the time in football with, say, Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. And when you’re riding horses in Group Ones which are favourite, you have to remember they are favourite for a reason. From my point of view as a jockey, it’s even more exciting.” And addictive.

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Thank you, James Mitchinson. Editor.