Anni Bates won’t make it to Freshers’ Cindies. Instead she’ll be getting up at 5am and training as she has all summer (while we’ve been sleeping, travelling, or scrolling Tumblr). All this in preparation for the first Varsity race of the academic year: the horse race.

That race takes place next Saturday, 10th October, at the prestigious Dubai Future Champions Festival. Cambridge hope to win the event again, having won the inaugural race last year, and will take on Oxford at 1.30pm. But that’s just the first of eight races, with the prize money for the two-day event coming in at a cool £2 million. As with all Varsity encounters, however, it’s the one against the old rivals that matters the most.

When the second hand strikes 12, 10 riders, five from each university, will hurtle forwards, knowing that the next couple of minutes will set the tone for a year of Varsity matches. There are two simultaneous competitions – an individual race, and the all-important team race. For Bates, this is “the pinnacle of my year”, the climax towards which the whole team has been working towards for nearly seven months.

They’ve definitely worked for it. Bates recalls a truly horrific training regime: no summer off, daily 5am wake-ups, five gym sessions a week and almost daily riding. Horse racing may not be the most traditional of Varsity matches, but it’s certainly no easy ride. Ironically, Bates - this year’s women’s captain at the university’s athletics club - calls it “a step up” from her previous Varsity experiences in the high jump. When the Cambridge team first got together in March, they were given the stark warning that fitness isn’t just necessary for victory, but necessary for survival. With the horses getting up to speeds of 35mph, Bates is modest in describing the sport as “pretty dangerous”.

Clearly there is no room for error – this is high-stakes stuff. The race will be held at the Newmarket Rowley mile, viewed by some as the home of racing; such a famous location will make the pressure overwhelming. The team have already got a sense of the occasion during training. Bates describes how she saw the world-famous champion jockey Frankie Dettori on the gallops one morning as “a very surreal moment, brushing shoulders with the elite of racing”.

It’s been a long journey to get there. Surprisingly, only one of Cambridge’s five – their captain James Alexander, part of last year’s victorious team – has any previous experience in competitive horse racing. Bates signed up in March “on a whim”, having seen the inaugural race. In fact, she’d never ridden a race horse before she started training for the Varsity race, and that’s a fairly typical profile for members of the Cambridge team. She recalls a humbling moment at the start of their training regime when in a taster session none of the team stayed on for more than fifteen seconds: “We all realised how far we had to come.”

For those interested in getting involved in equestrian sports, this is encouraging. “Six months ago I had no idea I’d be doing this”, Bates remarks. But now she stands on the cusp of a second successive Varsity victory, her enhanced powers of endurance about to be put to the greatest test yet. When asked what advice she would give to those dreaming of equine glory, she is unequivocal: “Get down to Newmarket mile, see what it’s all about.” At any rate “we need as many people as we can to shout us up the Mile.”

And for those wary of travelling outside the bubble, the message is ‘have no fear’. Not only can you get a £6.50 bus return, but the full day’s competitive racing, subsidised food and drink, and grass you can actually walk on will be a welcome break from the intensity of the town. Bates, who as a fourth year lives in a house outside the town, close to Newmarket, is certainly a fan. “It’s actually quite nice!” she exclaims. It’ll be even nicer if she wins.