With Married at First Sight UK coming to a close this week, we caught up with star of show - and Racing TV #Raceday presenter - Amy Christophers to discuss new beginnings.
Amy looks to life after the show and her next steps including a potential spin off with some of her MAFS cast members, moving back to London and also her excitement at the imminent moving up a gear of the jumps racing season.
Amy on... her love of jumps racing
Jumps racing is how I first came to discover the sport with the Grand National - and also the first meeting I ever worked at was Cheltenham being a bookie for Geoff Banks, when I was thrown right in at the deep end. So racing over jumps always holds a special place in my heart. For me, it's more exhilarating and challenging and requires a higher level of training. You have to admire those fearless jockeys who do the jumps - it looks the scariest thing, but they seem to love it.
While it's the most exciting form of racing for me, I must admit I'm not looking forward to the freezing-cold temperatures as we go into winter. But it's a great excuse to get out my faux furs, my felt fedoras and fashionable coats and best of all, flat shoes! I do like Ladies' Day at Royal Ascot for example, but for me winter jumps is the best fashion in racing. You can be super-chic while also really comfortable and on point. Jumps racing is a class of its own, fashion and racing, it's next level. It attracts a whole different crowd and atmosphere too. And of course any racing at Cheltenham is like Christmas for me.
Amy's tips for the jump season
Trainer Dan Skelton is one to follow this season. He normally has plenty of runners in the summer months but this year will be focusing on winning the trainers' championship. His main competitors will be Paul Nicholls and of course Nicky Henderson, while Olly Murphy will also have plenty of winners.
In Ireland it's always Willie Mullins, but now Gordon Elliott has returned from his suspension he will no doubt get plenty of winners too. They will all be gearing up to Cheltenham in March 2022 along with Henry De Bromhead. Ireland will look to keep their outstanding record going at the Festival.
In terms of jockeys, it'll be Harry Skelton for his brother Dan Skelton, Harry Cobden for Paul Nicholls, Sean Bowen, and Nico De Boinville, who rides for Nicky Henderson.
My little tip is to watch out for trainer Venetia Williams who always has plenty of winners in December and January when the mud is flying - especially at her local course in Hereford.
It's far too early to look at possible Cheltenham Festival winners, but Minella Indo who won last year's Gold Cup should be one to beat again. Meanwhile, Honeysuckle will be great to watch again this season having won the Champion Hurdle back in March.
Here are five horses I hope it might pay to follow:
• Boothill (Trained by Harry Fry)
• Firestep (Nicky Henderson)
• Gold Bullion and Mr Glass (Paul Nicholls)
• Washington (Olly Murphy)
• Fontaine Collonges (Venetia Williams) when the ground goes soft/heavy
#Raceday followers found out more about Amy in this Q&A
Amy on... moving back to the big smoke
I'm moving back to London this week. It was meant to happen at Easter, but then I went away filming Married at First Sight and also working so much for Racing TV. I lived in London for years, but it's a new beginning for me having moved back to Cornwall during the first lockdown for a year.
I do feel extremely lucky to have been back home with my loved ones, being by the beach and recharging my batteries. In no other time would I have been able to get away from London life for a year and spend that time with people that matter during such a hard time for everybody, so I really appreciated being able to be with my family. Clearing my headspace by going for long walks on clifftops, going wild swimming and switching off has been so different to what I've experienced in my life to date. Now it's back to the rat race!
Amy on... moving on from MAFS
With MAFS coming to an end this week, I’m really looking forward to the future. I've been in the public eye for many years, but now I feel I have a great platform to continue my sports reporting career and also try and make a difference about the issues I feel passionately about, such as shining a spotlight on environmental sustainability issues in sport.
But MAFS was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of such a unique experiment. Yes, it had lots of ups and downs, but I enjoyed being on the rollercoaster, making friends for life and learning a lot about myself in the process to take away and develop in the future. It's made me realise what I want to achieve and now it's a case of seeing what exciting opportunities come my way, while also keeping up my passion for horse racing by working on Racing TV #Raceday and bringing the sport to a younger, more diverse social media savvy audience. I may be 34, but I see Married at Fight Sight as the start for me on my journey. This is just the beginning.
Amy on... a spin-off show with Josh or Alexis?
Me and Josh were joking with each other about doing a spin-off show together. I'm sure it'd be great viewing for the public, but probably torture for us! He says I give him enough of a headache already from one TV show, let alone another! But it's flattering that people find us entertaining and that I think boils down to us being true to ourselves the entire time and not surrendering our personalities at any point during the process. So if the British viewing public think we could do more on-screen work together, it's nice to hear.
Maybe we could do a fitness or sport-based one so I can show that I can mix it with Josh's physical regimes, but also expose his lack of football knowledge! He didn't even know who Jose Mourinho was when I asked him on honeymoon. But maybe the thought of a wine tasting series after our final date this week is probably more appealing to me!
But it's not just Josh - the whole cast are one big dysfunctional family now, and I'd love to be on camera again with most of them! It'd be great fun, but just nothing rigged or hidden camera! I'd also love to take some of the #MAFS lot to horse racing and do a fly on the wall for our day out.
Perhaps my favourite idea for a spin-off would be something with my girl Alexis, we are so close and talk all the time - we are like two peas in a pod. We have so much in common, particularly in our values and spirituality - so I'd love nothing more than to do a spiritual journey or discovery show together, that'd be my dream. We'd just have to make sure there'd be no husbands in sight!