Colourful owner-trainer John Manners dies at 83

RACING was robbed of one of its most colourful, eccentric and, at times, controversial characters on Monday with the death of owner-trainer John Manners. He was 83 and died peacefully at home near Swindon in Wiltshire following a short illness.

More than once, Manners achieved success at the highest level in the hunter chase world with wins at the Cheltenham Festival and Aintree's Grand National meeting. To some, however, he was rather better known for his offbeat behaviour and full blooded enthusiasm, which made him a much-loved character on the point-to-point circuit, where he had an army of followers.

His finest hour came at the Cheltenham Festival in 2000 when he won the Foxhunter with his homebred Cavalero, who two years previously had been successful in the Martell Fox Hunters' at Aintree. He also won the latter with Killeshin in 1994.

Manners had several skirmishes with officialdom. He was fined £50 by the Cheltenham stewards in 1982 after enthusiasm got the better of him and he jumped over the running rails and pursued Knight Of Love, his winner, up the run-in, tossing his trilby in the air.

His darkest hour came six years later when he lost his licence for three seasons after Voices of Spring won a race at Manners's local point-to-point at Siddington, near Cirencester in Gloucestershire. Spectators were bemused to see the trainer put the weight cloth on AFTER the horse had finished.

Jockey Alex Charles-Jones, who rode Cavelero at Cheltenham and Aintree, told racingpost.com on Monday night:"John was a genuine eccentric. They'll never be another character like him in racing. He had around 20 horses, and he'd feed them between 12 midnight and 1am."

Charles Jones added: "I'd drive him to the races and always he said he'd fall asleep and wouldtell me his stories. He never did fall asleep and talked the entire journey there, the entire journey back. Yet never did he repeat one of the stories. He was an excellent farmer, an outstanding stockman."