Although jockeys go through various training programmes before acquiring a license to ride, they really learn about skills and techniques when thrust into in action on the racecourse. I guess it’s a bit like learning how to drive a car and then actually mastering the art through experience.

The point I am making is that while the basic requirements of riding are to balance and control a horse from the start to the finishing post, it takes a lot more skill and effort to actual win a race, where there are 10 or 15 other jockeys in the race also doing the same thing.

A perfect example of this was evident in Saturday’s running of the Coral-Eclipse Stakes, one of the most prestigious all-age, middle distance contests, run during the summer in the UK.

The field had everything you could ask for from high-quality to variety. There were horses that are tactically brilliant, adaptable, blessed with a unique turn-of-foot, experienced and resilient. Then you had the up-and-coming types with extraordinary freshness and enthusiasm, always a dangerous combination and ones who could re-invent themselves like the brilliant The Fugue.

And then there was Mukhadram, under-rated at times, but a champion in his own right. A horse who almost pulled off a coup in Dubai when he came close to winning the Dubai World Cup in his first endeavour on an alien all-weather surface.

He was a horse who was always held in high regard by his connections and his jockey Paul Hanagan, who really believed in him. And when there is belief, there is hope and confidence and that’s what made all the difference when Hanagan delivered one of his best efforts to score a major victory in the Eclipse.

Every young aspiring jockey must get himself a recording of the race and watch on repeat mode how Hanagan, who understood the behaviour of his horse was able to control and settle him right from the start before asking him for his effort which came readily and effortlessly. The result was never in doubt at that stage.

Horseriding is a dangerous and demanding occupation. But more than anything, it requires consummate composure and Hanagan is perhaps one of the most unflappable riders in the business today. Horses feed off their rider’s state of mind and jockeys that panic the least get the best results.