The Saturday Interview with BRIAN DOOGAN CHAMPAGNE Prince has hit the five-furlong pole in front but there is sufficient horsepower on his tail to keep on ice the bottles he might have been named after.

Of equal concern to those immersed in his present predicament is the quality of the men steering his immediate pursuers, 7-2 favourite Fahs and 20-1 shot Star Manager.

Mick Kinane and Richard Quinn are men who might have provided the old Greek warrior Bellerophon with competition for the mount of Pegasus, such are their credentials.

Carl Lowther, on board Champagne Prince, has by comparison the type of record that might just get him a ride in a donkey derby at Blackpool - the beach that is.

After six years of riding, the 23-year-old apprentice from Blackburn has passed the winning post in front just seven times, the number of winners jockeys such as Frankie Dettori like to ride in a day.

But the young man and his horse are holding off the heavyweights.

Nerve and ambition are compensating for Lowther's lack of experience.

Champagne Prince is outstripping his rivals and 72,000 people, who have reawakened the sleeping giant that is Epsom and are becoming unbearably excited about the Derby which is next up, cheer him home.

As the three-year-old eats up the track, the smile on Carl Lowther's handsome face grows wider to reveal a set of gleaming white teeth undamaged by his exertions in the saddle.

He can still feel the surge of excitement build inside him.

The race has run endlessly through his mind all week while the lines that cloud the television when he plays you the tape of this fantastic performance betray the number of times he has watched it himself since last Saturday.

But they cannot distort the sheer joy he experiences each time he recalls it.

"He missed the kick a little bit and he was slow into his stride but made the ground up fairly comfortably early on because he has got a little bit of toe (speed)," he tells you, his bright eyes not deviating from the screen.

"I just sat on him, got into a nice position - I wanted to be handy so I wouldn't get into trouble and get a nice, clear run.

"I didn't want to be in front too long but Epsom is downhill now and he's keen and he's pulling me.

"And I'm thinking with five furlongs left to go - and he's pulling his way to the front - 'Not yet, not yet!'

"But he was wanting to go.

"He's still pulling with three furlongs left to go and he's still on the bridle. I can still feel him.

"Now I just get on the rail and he's got a clear run, he's got the rail to run on.

"And I'm only just starting to niggle at him now, letting him go a little, not committed.

"Just coming up to the two-furlong pole I ask him, 'Go on,' and he stretches out.

"I gave him one smack and that was when Mick Kinane came up alongside and challenged him."

The analysis comes to a swift halt as Lowther watches the final sprint in silence, retreating into his cocoon of satisfaction, and only resumes when the commentator has given confirmation of the result.

"It is hard work. You do earn your money out there because it is not easy," he adds. It is not easy when you return home from such a day at 1.30am and have to be up to start work at seven the next morning.

But the horses at Jack Berry's stables, set in 87 acres of beautiful, rolling North Lancashire land near Cockerham where Carl is serving his racing apprenticeship, need seeing to.

"Seven o'clock you start, you muck the horses out that you look after," explained Carl as we chatted in the front room of the house he shares with his attractive girlfriend, Annalise.

"January comes, you pick the horses you'll look after that season.

"You muck out the same horses out every morning so you get to know them.

"I don't ride them - they're just the ones I look after.

"This is being a stable lad now, not a jockey.

"On the day they're racing you go with them in the box to lead them up and let some other jockey ride them."

Each apprentice - Berry has five on the books - is responsible for the well-being of a number of horses which they select at the start of the year (their contract with Berry is renewed every 12 months).

Lowther will remain an apprentice either until he is 25 or when he rides his 95th winner.

Jockey Club rules could assist him in his quest to achieve the latter for racing's governing body is expected to raise the automatic age to 26, giving Lowther another year to meet the quota.

"If you can ride out your apprenticeship and get those 95 winners, you're regarded - rightly or wrongly - as a better jockey," he explained. "So that has to be my goal before I am 26."

Getting the rides to do so, though, is precarious work which is why his wins on Champagne Prince at Epsom and a week earlier at Newmarket were so significant. They were televised.

His agent can tell a prospective employer until she is blue in the face about her man's talent, that he does what he is told and that he will give their horse a chance.

She can also say the same about Yogi Bear.

But when he demonstrates this at a televised meeting at Newmarket, the evidence is indisputable, especially when it is supported by glowing testimony from as revered a voice as John Francombe, the former champion National Hunt jockey.

"A good performance by Champagne Prince, an even better one from Carl Lowther," he told Channel 4 Racing's audience.

"There'll be plenty of trainers about looking for a 7lb claim (a system whereby until an apprentice jockey has ridden 20 winners, he can claim 7lb off the weight the horse is officially supposed to carry) - this young lad's really good display should make them take notice."

For Lowther to be constantly ready to put his best foot forward, sacrifices must be made every day.

The most obvious concerns the intake of food. The most distressing - for many of us - is that he has to limit himself to half a shandy a fortnight.

At 5ft 4ins and 7st 12lbs, he looks strong, could even pass for a bantamweight boxer.

But maintaining that shape is not easy, especially when he set a new bottom weight for himself last week of 7st 9lb.

"It's really hard work - when you're used to eating what you want and all of a sudden someone says that you've got to make 7st 9lbs for next week, that is difficult" he said.

"So I can't have my tea tonight, I can't have my breakfast and I'll have to have a little piece of toast instead of that bacon sandwich!

"I eat a lot of fruit - my granddad helps me out when I go around at the weekend, he'll give me grapefruit and apples and fruit's the best thing.

"You can't over-indulge."

But the sacrifices are worth making.

Horses are the carriers of Carl Lowther's dreams.

From a young age he wanted to be a jockey. "All the boys at school used to wind me up about going off to ride horses when they were out playing football," he recalled. "But it never bothered me.

"I was a little lad at school, the smallest in my year, so that was a help - although there's not much you can do to prevent yourself growing, you just hope!"

What is surprising is that the sole connection with horse racing in the Lowther family is granddad Harold's daily flutter at the local bookies.

But Carl was supported - and is - by his entire family in pursuit of his goal and looks forward to the trip he makes home to Knuzden Brook at least once a fortnight.

Some of us who follow the sport of kings - over the bank manager's protests - also look forward to keeping an eye on Lowther's progress.

If his performance on Epsom Downs are anything to go by, he is on the up and up.

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