Denys Smith: the grand old man of sport still full of surprises

Some trainer, this man. Not only did he train nearly 1,800 winners, he also trained himself. A truly self-made individual, Denys Smith looks out of the window of the house in which he has lived these last six decades, seeing not the lines of new-build houses but the boxes they replaced, with a horse looking out of each one.

This month Smith turned 90, no longer just one of racing's elder statesmen but one of the last remaining links to that foreign country where they did things differently.

He may not stride so confidently around the room as he did in his younger days, but his mind is pin-sharp and his recollection of names and events would delight any archivist. They emerge from him in a relentless flood of stories, the past coming to life in the hands of this practised raconteur.