Chantal Sutherland: London 2012

I've never seen the paparazzi in action at close quarters before and just assumed that stories of them climbing trees or scaling walls were exaggerated, but here they were, in broad daylight, hiding amongst bushes in the garden area opposite the entrance of The Dorchester Hotel, Hyde Park, London. One of the 'snappers' as they like to be referred, or 'disgusting pigs' as Miley Cyrus knows them, or 'scum of the earth' as Seal once described them, must have seen the incredulous look on my face, as he simply said 'Olympics, mate' as if that justified behaviour which would see him being 'disappeared' on the spot in at least eight of the 204 countries competing at the Games.

On the paparazzi scale, certainly in this fortnight, an Olympian would trump a jockey in most cases, but perhaps not this one. Hopefully, the paps were too blinkered with sights set on Olympians to see the real sports star coming and going from The Dorchester, Chantal Sutherland, whose weight in sporting gold is roughly the equivalent of seven track-and-field athletes, or a dozen swimmers, or 46 volleyballers, or 45 beach volleyballers.

Like the Olympics, it's a shame that Sutherland is in London on only a temporary basis. She's here to ride as part of an all-female team in the Shergar Cup, an event that, despite various facelifts, has struggled for identity and never really taken off in the 11 years it's been going at Ascot. Its biggest problem is that the team element on which the Shergar Cup is founded and marketed doesn't fit a sport that always has been and always will be about individual competition; one on one rather than team on team.

This year, for the first time, part of the team division includes a splitting of the genders, the girls versus the boys so to speak, which on the one hand makes sense for novelty and publicity purposes but on the other hand might, to some extent, be seen to undermine the significant work Sutherland and her team-mates, fellow Canadian Emma-Jayne Wilson and Britain's Hayley Turner, have done in accelerating the process of eradicating the deep-rooted sexisim in the jockey profession, so that they are now not categorised as 'lady riders' but as just 'riders', and top riders at that.

'It's going to be fun to be with the girls,' said Sutherland, 'and to be riding in England, the home of racing, is very exciting.' She's full of genuine enthusiasm when speaking about her appearance at the Shergar Cup, but underneath the fun-time exterior is a driven, hard-working and finely-tuned athlete with a discernable hunger to win, as we'll come to later.

Now, as you may be aware, Sutherland's exterior is not only fun-time, it's also attractive. Very attractive. Attractive in a way that has meek men like me on the verge of going to pieces long before setting foot in The Dorchester for our meeting. The aftershave stages re-rally after re-rally in the forlorn hope that my inadequacies as an interviewer and a man may be masked by the sweet scent of Paul Smith. If Chantal Sutherland looked like Susan Boyle then I suspect it would be easy; but she doesn't and it wasn't, at least not to begin with. But all down to me, of course, and not the engaging, bright-eyed Sutherland, who somehow managed to keep a straight face while I started off with a fair impression of Hugh Grant- Hugh Grant if his directions were to ham up the bumbling a bit but also speak with a funny accent and look far less handsome.

However, thanks to her calming presence, soon it's not me interviewing a top jockey/model/actress, instead it's two people talking conversationally but passionately about racing, initially focusing on the horse who has taken her to new levels and new places, Game On Dude, or 'The Dude' as she calls him.

Sutherland and her Dude almost won the Breeders' Cup Classic together last year, the determined double-act overhauled only late on by Drosselmeyer. 'He was so brave, but he was tired by the end. So You Think came at him, Uncle Mo came at him; he saw them off and thought he had it done, but it's a long stretch at Churchill.'

It's an even longer stretch at Meydan where the pair went next to contest the Dubai World Cup, but the damage was done at the start of the race this time and not the finish. 'All week, in the build-up, whether I was in the gym or trying to relax, I'd be thinking through all the variables and all the potential scenarios; what would I do if X, Y or Z happened, and planning for it in my mind; and then, when the time came and we were in the gate (the widest draw of all in 14), The Dude sat down. I shouted to the starter 'no, no, no, no', but the gates opened, and that was that...and it really sucked.'

However, Timeform ratings suggest that, since then, Game On Dude has not only put Dubai behind him but also improved further on his form of last year, with back-to-back wins at Hollywood Park, the latest a Grade 1 just last month, and Sutherland agrees that it certainly feels from her unique perspective as if he's better than ever.

It's all systems go for Game On Dude to go one better in the Classic, this year at Santa Anita, and mention of the fact brings an extra twinkle to her eye: 'He loves it at Santa Anita. He's undefeated there. He gets on a roll and into a rhythm on that dirt surface and it really suits his style.' And what is it about Sutherland herself that so clearly suits the horse's style? 'I think it's just the timing; The Dude is a sensitive horse and sometimes I just sit quiet and sometimes I have to fight him. It's a fine line, but I know him pretty well by now, and I help him perform with confidence - that's my job.'

There are four teams of three for the Shergar Cup, comprising riders from around the world, and each one will have their own pre-race approach and ritual, some loud and some reserved. Sutherland falls very much into the latter category. 'I like to keep myself to myself, that works for me. It would just annoy me if people were talking, because I want to be left alone to think through the race. It's one of the benefits of being a female jockey- I like my space and time to get in the zone, and I often have the changing room to myself.' Take note Hayley and Emma-Jayne.

Her steely interior- the professional pride and commitment that is so easy to underestimate with her at first glance- is coming more and more to the surface in our conversation, as Sutherland explains in greater detail about what she puts in to each and every mount beyond the actual physical effort of race-riding, both the preparation before the event- including analysis of the competition, reviewing their runs, working out tactics, using Beyer figures- and her emotions after the race: 'I'm okay if I feel I rode a good race and the horse didn't win, that just happens, but if I've made a mistake, then, oh my God, it affects me for a while. I watch my races back every day to see what I could have done better.'

A good five minutes after my allotted time has elapsed, which says plenty about her after a full morning on the media merry-go-round, I pack up and leave with a spring in my step out of the same door I tiptoed in with a red complexion and sweaty brow. I'll never forget the last thing Chantal Sutherland said to me that day: 'It's a sliding door!' That after I had spent the best part of a minute pushing and pulling in increasing desperation, meaning I did in fact leave with the same red complexion and sweaty brow.

Come Saturday, riding at Ascot will be another box ticked in the long list of ambitions Sutherland still has as a jockey. 'I want to win the TVG Pacific Classic, I want to win at the Breeders' Cup, I want to win the Kentucky Derby. And I also want to have some fun.' In Game On Dude, she has the horse who can go a long way to help realise her dreams, starting with the Pacific Classic at Del Mar later this month. The Dude, however, is just one chapter in her book. Do judge this book by its covergirl; it's a great story.

Click here to bet on the winning team at this year's Shergar Cup. Click here to bet on the top jockey.