I had never really considered bad luck before. A brilliant memoir changed all that | Adrian Chiles

Davy Russell’s magnificent autobiography of life as a jockey taught me a valuable lesson about gratitude and achievement

Today, I’m interviewing a jockey on my radio programme about his memoir. Being not much into horse racing, I knew next to nothing about Davy Russell until I opened his book. I’m very glad to have made his acquaintance because, in a blistering opening chapter, as well as conveying a vast amount of information about the art of riding a racehorse over jumps, he comes up with an observation about winning which applies to life as much as racing.

This chapter has him describing the first of his two consecutive Grand National wins on Tiger Roll, in 2018 and 2019. From the flag to the finish, you’re on that horse with him over every jump. It’s all breathtaking – film from a camera on his helmet with a running commentary wouldn’t convey it better – but it’s just after the fourth fence that the wisdom comes:

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