VICTORIA Pendleton admitted she had learnt a lot after finishing well down the field on her second competitive start as an amateur rider at Beverley yesterday.

The 34-year-old, who lives in Moreton, near Thame, made her racecourse debut in a charity event at Newbury in July, before almost making a fairytale start as a fully-fledged amateur when narrowly beaten aboard Royal Etiquette at Ripon last month.

Pendleton was yesterday reunited with the gelding, trained at Aston Rowant by Lawney Hill, but could only finish 13th.

After a slow start, Royal Etiquette swiftly made up ground, but was bumped entering the final two furlongs and could not recover, finishing well adrift.

“I’ve learnt a lot from that one,” the Olympic cycling champion said.

“Royal Etiquette is not too fond of coming out of the stalls and if I had been a bit more experienced, my timing could have been better.

“I gave it my best shot, but these things happen – it was a great learning curve.”