Not that I'm complaining.

Far from it. When you've spent the guts of 12 weeks of your season out injured, you're only raring to keep going. Looking back on it now, I can see that it was two main injuries . . . the broken collarbone in November and the compressed vertebra on New Year's Day . . . that were the difference between a good season and a brilliant one for me.

Whatever success I've had, I've been happy for but I can't help feeling that I missed out on more. The broken collar bone kept me from riding Kauto Star in the Tingle Creek in December and I missed a good Fairyhouse meeting because of it as well.

I got back just in time to ride Feathard Lady and a few others at Christmas but the fall on New Year's Day ruined me for the rest of the season. I was probably wrong to keep riding for the next few weeks and probably lucky that I fell at Gowran on Thyestes day. Only for that, we mightn't have discovered the compressed vertebra until too late and I might have had to miss Cheltenham.

As it was, I made it back just a few days before the festival. There were a lot of winners missed in that time. And then, when I got there, I felt I just wasn't as sharp as I could have been. It was great to be the leading rider at it but my judgement wasn't what it would usually be. The three horses I won on were ones I wouldn't have picked out at the start of the week; the two that I fancied more than any . . . Denman and Kauto Star . . . didn't win.

I was delighted in the euphoria at the end of that week but when I sat down and analysed it afterwards, I knew I'd left a few winners behind me.

I wasn't as sharp or as fit as I might have been. I was trying not to make mistakes, not feeling as confident in my decisions as I would have been before.

It's a judgement thing rather than a physical thing. Physically, I was grand, except for a bit of stiffness where Moscow Flyer had used me as a floorboard. But it was in the sense of pace, the sense of form, the knowledge of how things were going to develop around me in a race. When you're riding the whole time, you have a great grasp on what way horses are ridden, what way races are ridden. When you're away from it for a stretch, you lose a bit of that no matter how many afternoons you put in watching Attheraces.

A perfect example was the SunAlliance Hurdle where Denman was beaten by Nicanor. We went a real good gallop and Paul Carberry was on my tail until the second last and then he stayed really well to win. As a result, when we got to Punchestown and I was filling in for Paul, I knew that Nicanor was going to stay no matter what happened and I made my plans around that.

Now, if I hadn't ridden at Cheltenham and had just watched the race, it would have looked as though Paul had just crept away on him and come good in the end. But because I rode in the race, I was able to make up my own mind and use my judgement. That's what injury robs you of more than anything, that ability to make an informed judgement on what's going on around you.

So in a way, there's a slight frustration there over the way the season panned out. I came second in the Gold Cup, second in the Grand National, second in the Scottish National and Kauto Star fell in the Champion Chase. If just one of those had come in, it would have made all the difference. It would have made a good year a great year. As it was, when you compare it to the previous year and winning three of the four Grand Nationals, it's a bit of a dip. I had just over 150 winners between here and the UK this season whereas last season it was 191. That means it didn't live up to last year.

But there's always next year and the great horses keep coming. Asian Maze will have a big season, I'm sure of it.

Noland and Denman will go novice chasing and I still think Kauto Star is a hell of a horse. Azertyuiop will be back but you never know how good a horse will be after missing that long with injury.

Willie's bumper horses didn't do it at Cheltenham but he has a great batch of them all the same. Black Harry, Glencove Marina, Equus Maximus will all have plenty to contribute in the coming 12 months.

As I said before, you won't hear me complaining.