‘Please don’t tell me you resorted to the loan sharks at some impossibly high interest rate.’

‘I actually wish I had. They would have only taken all my money, not rob me of my reputation and self-respect as well.’

‘So was this loan made to you by Anton Valance?’

‘Not ostensibly, but he organised it.’

‘How? I mean, how did he even know you needed a loan in the first place? Did you tell him?’

‘Of course not. But I did call all my owners to urge them to please settle their invoices immediately, and also to ask if any of them would consider paying a month or two of their training fees in advance. Doesn’t take rocket science for them to work out I was a bit short.’

‘Even so, it’s quite a big step for a jockeys’ agent to find out.’

‘I don’t know. Maybe I mentioned it to him. He was always calling me. Anyway, by then I didn’t care who knew, all I cared about was getting some fresh cash into my account.’

‘How much?’ I asked.

I could sense that he was reluctant to tell me.

‘Come on,’ I said. ‘How much?’

‘Sixty grand.’

That was not too bad, I thought. At least it wasn’t a quarter of a million as I’d been half expecting.

‘Valance claimed he had a consortium of backers, current and former racehorse owners and such, who didn’t like to see people, especially trainers, be forced out of racing due to small downturns, or plain bad luck. He said they were prepared to help by lending me some money as a short-term contingency.

‘I thought the terms were pretty high, mind, but they weren’t excessive, not hundreds of per cent interest like the bloody loan sharks were offering. Trust me, I’d checked them too. And Valance also said his consortium didn’t want any form of surety over the loan, so I suppose I couldn’t really complain.’

‘Have you paid it back?’ I asked.

‘Some of it. The trouble is, it keeps growing due to the high interest rate.’

What a complete mess, I thought. Getting into debt can be so easy—people will do anything if they’re desperate—but getting out again can be impossible. It’s how all loan sharks operated, and this consortium, if it even existed, was doing far more harm to trainers than any good that they claimed.

‘So what happened next?’ I asked.

‘Valance called me and said there was another way to pay back the loan.’

What a surprise—not!

‘Was that before or after he arranged for Marcus Capes not to turn up to ride your horse at Sedgefield last October?’

He looked across at me sharply. ‘How do you know about that?’

‘Let’s just say I know all sorts of things that would surprise you. So, was it before or after Sedgefield?’