Isabel Williams believes her next winner of the jump season will confirm her conviction she was right to pursue horse racing despite its dangers.

At 27 years of age Williams is already Wales’ leading female jockey. Now she needs one more triumph to ride out her claim and become a fully-fledged professional.

A claim is a sliding-scale weight advantage for a horse ridden by a relatively inexperienced jockey. Once a conditional jockey has 75 career winners, they lose their claim and join the ranks of the elite.

Williams, of Llancarfan in the Vale of Glamorgan, has 74 winners and is eagerly awaiting her next success.

Her most recent win was at Doncaster on 1 March, riding Patriotik to victory in a three-mile hurdle.

“As the 75th creeps closer and you have another winner and another winner, all you want is more,” says Williams.

“I’ve got one more win to ride out my claim and I suppose that’s quite a big thing to do. I don’t know the exact percentage of jockeys who get their licence and go on to ride out their claim, but I think it’s pretty small.”

Recent statistics have put the conversion figure from starting out as a conditional jockey to becoming a full, elite professional at between only 10 and 15%.

Reasons for jockeys quitting before gaining 75 winners include the demands of making the weight and the risks of sustaining serious injury.

Williams, the daughter of leading Welsh trainer Evan Williams, began riding ponies aged five and says the worst injury she has suffered in 658 career races was a fractured cheekbone.

“It wasn’t even during the race, it was cantering up to the start and the horse decided he wanted to go faster than I wanted him to,” she says.

“That was really sore, but other than that I’ve had no really serious injuries, touch wood.”

The issue of rider safety in racing returned to the fore when 24-year-old Michael O’Sullivan, a Cheltenham Festival-winning jockey, died after injuries sustained in a fall at Thurles on 6 February.

“What happened to Michael O’Sullivan was heart-breaking – for his family, obviously, but also for everyone in racing because it touches everyone in a close-knit community,” says Williams.

“And the reality is it can happen to anybody. But I suppose you can’t think like that. You have to live your own life and do what you want to do.

“If you thought about the risks involved in anything, then you might never get in a car in the morning, or get on a plane to go on holiday. Yes, the sport is dangerous, but it is also made as safe as it can be.”