It wouldn't be as hard to imagine him turning up at the emergency room in his scrubs to patch up the subsequent tissue damage, or even opening the door of his bank in a pinstriped suit to explain the investment opportunities for your compensation cheque. But sticking his chin into harm's way like a wild-eyed Paul O'Connell or vein-throbbing Roy Keane has never been the natural gait of a man who has raised the practice of respectful reticence to an art form. Then again, it is not every day that a long-standing friend, trusted lieutenant and a valued member of 'Team Ballydoyle' is unjustly hauled across the coals.

Seamus Heffernan doesn't seem overly surprised at the loyal support he received from his boss during the furore that followed George Washington's victory in the Queen Elizabeth II stakes at Ascot last month. He is reflecting at a month's calm distance on the incident that earned him almost as much public attention in a couple of weeks than all his previous years in the racing business combined. "The thing is, if you were wrong about something you wouldn't get support from Aidan, " he says.

"But when you are right, you will."

'Seamie' Heffernan must be doing a lot of things right in racing if loyal support from his bosses is his yardstick for measurement. His first encounter up close with horseflesh was when he got a part-time job painting rails at Arthur Moore's yard at the age of 14, not too far from his home town of Sallins. Now 34, he recalls: "I'm not from a racing family, my father was a blocklayer but I was always going to be a bit small for that.

I left school young and went to the apprentice school for jockeys."

He continued his apprenticeship with Curragh trainer, PJ Finn, a move that was to present him with two of the more significant milestones in his life. He rode his first ever winner, Ansfield Lady at Dundalk in 1988, and ran into Aidan O'Brien for the first time. When O'Brien moved on to a job as assistant trainer for Jim Bolger he offered Heffernan a job and he eagerly followed him up to Carlow.

"I stayed at Bolger's for over seven years, and it was a real education in riding horses but as well as that he taught you respect. It's great to see him bounce back and get top-class horses like Teofilo and Fionnsceal Beo again."

Despite his obvious affection for the time he spent with Jim Bolger, O'Brien tempted him away again when he set up at Ballydoyle, and he provided him with his first European Group 1 winner on Beckett in the National Stakes in 2000 which was followed up with a first classic win on Imagine in the 1,000 Guineas a year later . . . both secondstring rides. Does he ever get frustrated with his dependence on others making the wrong pick before he gets a chance for Group 1 glory?

"Not overly frustrated, no.

You would think a little bit about things in your head, but it doesn't bother me. I've got age on my side and the boys getting the better rides haven't. The stable policy is to use the best available and Mick Kinane is the most professional jockey I have ever seen.

"Kieren really knows the horses and the way he rides them brings them forward.

Only the bad stuff about him makes the papers and you will always get begrudgers because of his style of riding . . . he always puts the horse first. Kieren Fallon is Kieren Fallon, a real good fella with a real good heart."

Heffernan harbours little doubt that his supporting role at Ballydoyle is better than the leading job at most other stables and trying his luck as number one at a lesser yard has never remotely entered the equation. "Definitely not.

I love my job. I ride the best bred horses in the world, there's great firepower and I work for a team and for fair men who want everybody to make a good living out of racing."

The depth of the fairness in the men he works for was publicly demonstrated in the tumultuous aftermath of the Ascot race. A red mist descended on Ballydoyle over the treatment received by their rider. In a scrappy race, won easily by George Washington, Heffernan had a bumpy passage on the Ballydoyle second string, Ivan Denisovich. After some prompting from Dettori the local stewards convicted him of deliberately impeding the Godolphin challenger, Librettist, who was considered the biggest threat to the Irish favourite.

With all the recent tension between the Coolmore and Dubai breeding operations, it was bound to be an incendiary decision. Heffernan was banned for 14 days for riding to team tactics, a charge that indirectly suggested that both he and his boss were cheating.

There was an immediate campaign organised in Tipperary to free the Ascot One.

A livid O'Brien transformed overnight from 'Aidan the mild' to 'Aidan the malevolent', and defended his maligned jockey with some unusually expansive language. "I almost had a seizure;

[the decision] was one of the most absurd things I had ever heard in my life. I couldn't believe what Frankie Dettori did afterwards. He's either paranoid about Ballydoyle horses, or he knew that he'd given his own horse such a bad ride that he wanted a way to cover himself."

Calm was partially restored when the team tactics charge was thrown out on appeal and Heffernan was given a lesser ban for careless riding. At this remove Heffernan is fairly phlegmatic about the whole affair. "It was a little thing that was blown out of proportion. More than one person made a mistake but the verdict was wrong and had to be put right and we got it nearly put right. That was the important thing."

He describes what actually happens during pre-race considerations when Ballydoyle have multiple runners in a big race. "When Aidan is organising the jockeys for horses there is more than one person involved in the decision, and there could be two or three sets of instructions.

Aidan lets you ride according to how the race goes. As long as all the Ballydoyle runners run well or win it is an advantage to me no matter who rides them."

He is adamant that any business rivalry between Coolmore and Godolphin does not impact on riding tactics. "We'd look at Godolphin because they have the firepower in the way that, say, Manchester United look at the next team down . . . but everybody is a rival, everybody."

Heffernan will not be riding any of the Ballydoyle challengers in next week's seasonal climax . . . the Breeders' Cup in Kentucky, nor is he aware of any recent speculation linking him with a more prominent role at Ballydoyle if Fallon doesn't surmount his legal difficulties next year.

"There are always rumours, but I would be available if I was asked. Aidan knows that."

His soft spoken and reflective demeanour doesn't hide a steely determination and belief in his own ability. "I think I am as good as anybody else riding."

His role as Ballydoyle's Buzz Aldrin has allowed him to sit on some of world's best horses in the last 10 years and he singles out George Washington as one of the best he has ever sat on. Gorgeous George wraps up his racing career next Saturday night and Heffernan is confident of a memorable finale. "He has been training good and he looks good so fingers crossed that he travels well."

With Fallon in Australia preparing for a tilt at the Melbourne Cup on Yeats, Heffernan is currently enjoying an end-of-season bonanza on some promising late twoyear-olds. He says he will probably ride over hurdles this winter to stay fit, but gazes quietly into the distance when asked if he'd prefer to be in Kentucky with the A team next week. He considers his answer but it won't quite come. Maybe next year?

"Yeah. Maybe next year."