Author

Former jockey William Morgan on his curiosity to document the histories of Britain's bygone racecourses

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After leaving university, I was on my own.

My father, who was one of the developers' minds behind the high street shop Next, was a tough businessman. He told me when I was 14 that once I left college, home was no longer home and I had to make my own way. It was old-fashioned but meant that I got on with it.

I decided I wanted to go into racing.

I didn't want to be an agent or trainer. The last thing I wanted was my name in lights, so I went into stud management instead.

At 23, I was managing Limestone Stud, which no longer exists. The best horse we bred was Wassl, who won the Irish 2000 Guineas and was Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's first Classic winner.

Before that, I was an amateur jockey.

I remember riding in a novice chase at Haydock. I was concentrating very hard because the fences were the stiffest in the country, aside from Aintree, when the jockey in front of me, Martin Blackshaw, handed the champion jockey, Ron Barry, his birthday card mid-race! I could not believe it.