Stoute said: "You have to put things behind you, even things like the World Cup, and keep looking ahead. There are a lot of horses here to be trained, a lot of people to have some success for. But Singspiel has given the yard the most tremendous lift just at the right time."The winter is long, and means a lot of hard work, and to have such a boost just as we're about to launch the new season has been a wonderful buzz for everyone. Not to mention a few quid in the pot for the staff, too; they get their 5 per cent of the prize."Singspiel still has the golden cut-out stars and well-done notices on his stable door, but eyes are now turning to a younger member of the 160- strong team.

Hopes for a third Derby for the yard lie in the strong, elegant bay shape of a colt called Entrepreneur, among the market leaders after winning twice last year, but as yet untested in top company.Stoute said: "He has always impressed us and we're very hopeful, but I shan't get involved in any hype But he has done particularly well from two to three. And for me, the great pleasure of the job is here at home, assessing the horses, training them and watching them develop."And then to see a top-class horse, an athlete that you have prepared, knuckle down and win is the greatest thrill there is It still stirs my blood. And when it doesn't I'll know I'm ready to go six feet down.". A Bright spring morning on Newmarket Heath. Blue sky, green grass and silence broken only by the buzz of a strimmer as Jockey Club workmen trimmed the edges of an otherwise pristine gallop.

Then, from the distance, a rhythmic thump as the first of Luca Cumani's long string of horses climbed the gentle, curving hill. Not much to choose between the horses, so early in the flat season, and the same applied to their work riders, in football shirts and anoraks. It was an "easy work" day, and the first 20-odd riders past the top of the gallop were casual in the saddle: style was not the point. Then, in mid-string, a chestnut with a white blaze on its nose puffed efficiently by.

A flashy animal, and there was something eye-catching about the rider. His stirrups were short, halfway up the animal's flanks, and his nose was almost buried in the mane. His bottom pointed skywards, an attitude more familiar to racegoers on the west coast of America than to work-watchers on the Suffolk borders. The horse, an unraced two-year-old, was called Ramon Vega, a name recognised by football fans but which may never become well-known to racegoers. The jockey was called Royston Ffrench, and if his ambition and his mentor's belief is justified, he will one day be as synonymous with winners as his predecessor as an apprentice at Cumani's yard, Frankie Dettori. Ffrench, who is 21, has ridden 20 winners already, the latest a clever ride on the fancied Night Dance at Beverley on Friday.

He is confident, wirily fit, determined and, in an increasingly media-conscious sport, good-looking and articulate. But there is something else about him which is significant in his chosen sport as it would not be if he was a gifted footballer, cricketer or basketball player. Royston Ffrench is black."I find that in a way it helps," he said, after unsaddling Ramon Vega in Cumani's Bedford House stables at the foot of the gallops. "There are very few black jockeys in this country and if someone sees someone doing well they are more likely to take note of you."A racing stable can be a hard place to make a living, banter between lads and lasses is non-stop, and Ffrench takes his share: "I hope the photographer's using colour film," one lad called out as he posed in the sunshine, "otherwise you'll come out as a negative." Another suggested: "Make sure you get his best side - the backside." Ffrench took it in good part. He won't mind if plenty of jockeys get used to looking at his rear.His father, Roy Snr, came to Britain from Jamaica, and settled in Telford in the Midlands, where he works as a mechanic and welder. When Royston the younger - one of 13 children - left school he went to work in a local factory, hammering pallets together After that, he had a spell as a car valet "But really, I was doing nothing there," he recalled.