'A brilliant man to watch with every type of horse – and easy to argue with!'

I was with 'Elsie' from about 1987 until the early 1990s and although I was never there full time I rode the majority of his jumpers. He liked to have jockeys who he thought would suit a horse, which is how I ended up on Rhyme 'N' Reason in the Grand National.

He's just an unbelievable horseman, a genius really, and in those days he had the likes of Dead Certain and In The Groove as well as the jumpers – he had all those horses, for 5f to Nationals and Gold Cups. Every type of horse.

I'd go down there and ride work three mornings a week and he was brilliant to watch. He wasn't man who'd spend hours in the yard or the office, but on the gallops – or after he'd just look at a baby, a two-year-old or a four-year-old bumper horse, and he'd already have mapped out its future. Eight times out of ten he'd be right as well. You couldn't teach that – it's just something he's always had in his head.