Sam forgets his scars to chase the Grand prize

"Scottish Champion Hurdle at Ayr three years ago," says Thomas, pointing to the scar tissue above his left eye, and then tracing a finger down to another old wound on his chin.

"November meeting at Cheltenham — I bit through my lip and it was hanging off."

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Then there is the three-inch line down his nose.

"Half my helmet was crushed and the horse's hoof came round and did the rest. It could have been a lot worse though."

That was in the Friday meeting at Aintree in 2004, a fall on Mercato that cost him the chance to ride in his first Grand National.

In 2006, he rode Silver Birch 12 months before it won the National, and was unseated at The Chair.

He came off in almost exactly the same spot where he watched the 2007 race from the sidelines — and made a dramatic entrance to comfort a loose horse that had mowed down three stewards — after another Friday fall had left him with concussion.

"I've had no real broken bones," he says. "It's just my face has taken a battering."

For all the scars, Thomas's luck and looks are actually holding up very well.

Once named by a women's magazine as one of the most eligible bachelors in sport, the new golden boy of the turf is blazing a trail on the track and enjoying life off it with his girlfriend, Suzie.

It was an injury to champion trainer Paul Nicholls' senior jockey, Ruby Walsh, that gave Thomas his big chance last year.

The 23-year-old understudy seized it with a series of prominent victories, culminating in last month's titanic victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup as he and Denman eclipsed stablemates Walsh and Kauto Star.

"There were no grudges, Ruby was the first to congratulate me," says Thomas, who also rides for trainer Venetia Williams, having joined her stable as an amateur at the age of 17.

"If I'm second to him for the rest of my career then so be it. It's a great job.

"I'd love to step into his shoes one day but if it never happened I'd still be a very happy jockey.

"After the Gold Cup it was a blur. We went out in Cheltenham afterwards. I had five rides the next day so I had to be sensible but you only live once.

"The phone didn't stop all night long. It's nice that so many people were really happy for me, some I'd forgotten I even knew. It touched quite a few people."

Unsurprisingly, Thomas could not engineer another victory over Walsh and Kauto Star in yesterday's totesport Bowl Chase aboard unfancied Gungadu, even though Our Vic did.

At least he emerged unscathed and with a much better chance of success on 16-1 shot Mr Pointment in the big one.

Thomas rode the same horse to victory over the Grand National fences at Aintree's November meeting, and believes that could give him a vital edge, despite seeing Mr Pointment suffer a burst blood vessel at Doncaster in February in a race won by tomorrow's favourite, Cloudy Lane.

"If he hadn't run at Doncaster he'd be coming into this race nearly favourite," he said.

"A lot of people have forgotten about him now but I wouldn't swap him for anything else."

Although he lives in the border town of Ledbury and speaks with an English accent, Thomas went to school in Abergavenny and considers himself to be Welsh.

His parents made the short trip to witness his Gold Cup triumph but his father's duties at the Monmouthshire pointto- point meeting will keep them away from Aintree tomorrow.

It is a dedication to the sport that influenced Thomas from a young age.

"My dad took us all over the country every weekend to do lots of show-jumping and cross-country and we went hunting as often as we could as well," he said.

"It's a great background for any National Hunt jockey. Once I started to ride I knew that's what I wanted to do.

"Now it's my job and my career but it isn't everything. You've got to have a life. I'm very much looking forward to winding down at the end of the season and taking in exactly what's happened."

And would a Grand National victory celebration be even bigger than the Gold Cup?

"I don't know... well it would have to be, wouldn't it."