By Marcus Townend for the Daily Mail
Published: 23:06 BST, 16 June 2019 | Updated: 23:06 BST, 16 June 2019
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When you have never even got close to training a Royal Ascot winner, the anticipation of having two of the hottest favourites of the week could be a little nerve-shredding.
But Newmarket trainer James Tate, who will saddle New Graduate in Wednesday's Royal Hunt Cup and Invincible Army in Saturday's Diamond Jubilee Stakes, learned about keeping calm under pressure long before he became a trainer.
After graduating as a veterinary surgeon from Glasgow University in 2004, two years in a mixed rural practice in Cumbria produced experiences which would not have looked out of place in a James Herriot novel.
Invincible Army, pictured under PJ McDonald, is fancied to win the Diamond Jubilee Stakes
Such as the day Tate got an SOS call from panicking children who had removed their pet dog's surgical colour allowing it to attack stitches from a recent operation.
'The chocolate labrador had its guts all over the kitchen floor and there were three kids saying, "Help!",' Tate said
'I had to do an operation on the kitchen table thinking, "How many antibiotics have I got in the car? I'll give it everything". I am not sure if that was the text-book way to do it, but the chocolate labrador survived.
'Two years in mixed practice in Cumbria is very grounding, dealing with some lovely people and some weird and wonderful situations.'
Despite all that, Tate has never had to deal with a situation like the one facing him this week. Since taking out a trainer's licence in 2011, he has had close to 350 winners, but the closest
