He took out his jockey's licence again and, to his credit, has not looked back. "I'm enjoying the sport now more than ever," he said. "I can't wait to go and ride out, can't wait to go to the races."
He was talking after returning from Mark Pitman's gallops after riding work, including the trainer's highly promising Cimarrone Cove.
Farrant had ridden the grey on his debut this season over fences at Doncaster on earlier this month. They hit it off immediately and won. The partnership reappeared at Newbury last week over three miles and they ground the opposition into the turf to score by four lengths.
"He is going to be a super staying chaser in time," Farrant said. "He jumps superbly for a novice and is very clever and just gallops and gallops. Any trip suits him but the further he goes the better. At Newbury I was flat to the boards on him but he just wore them down, going away at the third last ditch."
He will ride the Sarah Williams-trained Ambleside in today's Welsh National highlight at Chepstow and wouldn't swap it for anything.
"He has only 10 stone one pound and Chepstow is his favourite track where he has done most of his winning," Farrant said. "I also think it is not perhaps the greatest Welsh National of all time and he is on a great weight."
Chepstow is Farrant's lucky course, too. He rode his first winner there, where his father, Rodger, was formerly clerk of the course.
Farrant Snr is now in the same position at Bath and Newton Abbott, while Farrant's older brother Ashleigh trains point to pointers in the West Country.
With bitter memories behind him, Farrant also nurses another heartbreak. Martha's Son broke down with him at Huntingdon when approaching the peak of his powers in a brilliant career.
"I felt shattered then too," Farrant said. He was retired and sent to Michael Bell's at Newmarket to lead the two year olds and yearlings on the gallops, but a recurrence of the injury saw him have to be put down. It was a great blow."
During that fateful season when his marriage went to pieces Farrant rode only five winners. He is already on six in his comeback career and is aiming to beat his best total of 31.
At 28, he is re-emerging as the talented horseman he once was and big trainers are again taking notice of the way he presents a horse at an obstacle. Make no mistake, The Pigeon has landed and the sky's the limit.
