Cheltenham Et Al: The Best of Alastair Down

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And, most poignantly of all, this is how Down described the cancer-stricken training genius Sir Henry Cecil when the incomparable Frankel won an unforgettable Juddmonte International two summers ago. His son Peter was a champion jockey – and now runs a successful stable in Scotland with his partner Lucida Russell. I imagine either Willie Mullins or Gordon Elliott which is hardly big news, I mean Gordon is running 60 horses and Willie will probably have 50. Like when Desert Orchid won the Gold Cup, I’d had my boots on the second placed horse, Yahoo at 40s - but he jumped the last with a big leap and I didn’t utter a word for Yahoo because I was yelling for Desert Orchid and that is what it does to you. Down commanded a platoon in the Battle of Sidi Barrani in December 1940 and lost his right eye in the engagement.

Lastly, one other thing that I wanted to say, if you have never been to Cheltenham, then you must go! I don’t really have major fancies for the big races, I tend to play in the handicaps, and every runner remember, has been planning to win these races for eight or nine months. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged.

He would come and win this race every year because people realised that in all honesty - and I think I can say this without Jim suing me - quite frankly, they didn’t bother running him for the rest of the year. We had satellite tv, mainly French and I had no way of watching Cheltenham, except on this particular Friday.

One of them said I had fulfilled their lifetime ambition as he went into his local pub in Shipston on Stour that night which was full of people from Cheltenham and he bought everyone in the pub a drink because he had backed it at 250/1! I met him a few times a very long time ago as I had horses with Jim Old in his glory days with Mole Board and Collier Bay and Alastair also had a share in one there. In response, it has been made shorter and with a smaller field, so therefore it has removed some of the ferocity but it has made it safer, a bit like the Grand National being made safer; fallers are kind of a rarity in the National now, whereas they were literally all over the place before. This collection of articles from the Sporting Life and Racing Post are great memory joggers and add colour to back up pieces on old, famous and some obscure races and horses from Timeform and others.On his favourite racehorse: ‘I’ll still thump anyone who doesn’t appreciate that Rondetto was the greatest chaser of all time. Well I love jump racing in particular but my favourite four days of the year is definitely Cheltenham. I have spanned golden years and I have lived through the matchless age of Champion Hurdles with Sea Pigeon, Night Nurse, Monks Field doing battle over the years and I’ve seen the Kauto Star and Denman years; and the Best Mate years - I’ve been very lucky.