... won the Grand National as a jockey on Sundew in 1957 and on Kilmore in 1962. He won it as a trainer with Jay Trump in 1965 and with Anglo in 1966.
His total of 923 National Hunt winners was a record at the time of his retirement (as a jockey) in 1964. His victory in the 1962 Grand Steeple–Chase de Paris at Auteuil – despite his illness, a broken bit and the horse breaking down in the last half–mile – was voted the greatest ride ever in a 2006 Racing Post poll.
He also won the Cheltenham Gold Cup twice as a jockey and once as a trainer, the Champion Hurdle three and four times respectively, and the King George VI Chase three and two times. He notched up a total of 45 wins at the annual Cheltenham Festival (17 as jockey and 28 as trainer), and is commemorated by the Fred Winter Juvenile Novices' Handicap Hurdle at the annual meet.
He was Champion Trainer eight times between 1970 and 1985. His last runner (and winner) was Stag Dinner, at Stratford in 1988; he died in 2004, aged 77.
© Haydn Thompson 2020