When her father's fortune was lost, she remained on her own in Kenya and at 18, became the first woman in Africa to receive a racehorse trainer's license.
She loped down the corridor, like a Palomino racehorse in sunglasses, and lifted an elegant hand in greeting, as if it were simply too early for speech.
It's not as if there were crowds of chanting racehorse fans, threatening riots if Charlie's Darling didn't make it back in third, rioting stable-girls who needed penning in and keeping out.