'Horses were his life' - former trainer Alistair Charlton dies at 89

Legendary Northumberland horseman Alistair Charlton, who went from learning to ride on his father's carthorses to beating the top trainers at Ascot and Sandown, has died at the age of 89.

He rode as an amateur for 30 years and was champion point-to-point rider in the northern area four times before taking out a training licence in 1979.

His best horses included Ida's Delight, who won 18 races – notably the Castleford Chase at Wetherby – and Lord Dorcet, who finished third in the Champion Chase at Cheltenham.

In 2007 Charlton passed the licence at Mickley Grange Farm in Stocksfield over to his son George, who said on Wednesday: "He passed away in his sleep last Sunday.

"Our old jockey Jan Faltejsek was in contact and was devastated at the news – he used to sit with my dad after every race he rode in and they'd pick their way through it.

"Horses were my dad's life. He loved them and got his horsemanship from working on the farm with my grandfather's carthorses. He got his mother to send him to college in Newcastle because on a Wednesday he was able to go flapping down the Eden Valley while all the other kids were at school!"

Reflecting on his father's training career, Charlton said: "Ida's Delight was his first star back in the 1980s. He wasn't frightened to take the big boys on down south and he won twice at Ascot. My dad gave Tony McCoy winners when he was just starting, he won on Lord Dorcet at Sandown and the Queen Mother presented the prize so that was quite a day."

Lord Dorcet (blue) wins under Tony McCoy at Sandown in 1996Credit: Selwyn ,George

Charlton was adept at buying horses, picking up the high class Tidal Bay for just £5,800 and selling him to Graham Wylie for 300,000gns.

"He used to go buying foals in Ireland every year and had a right eye for them," said his son, who stopped training in 2017 and now concentrates on farming.

"He got into the habit of selling these good horses for big money after they'd won a bumper. We reared them on the farm and brought them up from foals and nobody was allowed to spoil them by touching them – my dad used to say it took two years to make a horse and two minutes to spoil one!

"My mother, Margaret, was also very good with horses and was riding racehorses until she was 75. She had a post office when dad married her and used to deliver the post and the Newcastle Journal – when they moved away it took two postmen in two Land Rovers to do what she used to do on a pony every morning!"

Charlton, whose wife died two years ago, did his National Service in the Korean War and his son said: "On a weekend's leave in Seoul, he saw a fortune teller who said not to worry about getting shot; that he'd train racehorses – which he'd never thought of; he'd have two kids and live until he was 86. He believed it and most of it came true – when he got to 86 he had a quiet year!"

Charlton is also survived by his daughter Jane Walton, who trains in Otterburn near Newcastle.