'He never gave anything away – I had the same conversation dozens of times'

My first dealings with Martin Pipe were sometimes tricky. He would enter six or seven horses for the big Saturday races, and then never answer my questions about which of them would run: "We don't know the state of the going or their fitness." I had the same conversation dozens of times. Getting information over the phone was just as difficult – I christened his longtime secretary Gail Harrison as Geoffrey Boycott, because it was impossible to get anything past her. Her loyalty to "Mr Pipe" knows no bounds.

Then the bookies would reveal – on Fridays, surprise, surprise! – that one of Pipe's horses had been backed, and when his horses were declared just that one same horse was in the field. It was his secret operation to hoodwink the bookies. To add to the intrigue, his jockeys in the major races were never announced until the last possible moment. Names like Peter Scudamore or Tony McCoy were only revealed after the declaration. When he had a winner, Pipe, rolled-up Sporting Life always in his hand, was usually courteous with the press – but he seldom gave anything away. "He did it nicely, didn't he?" was his standard post-race comment.

Pipe loved the guessing game. He even sponsored a race at Taunton and called it the Martin Pipe Am I That Difficult? Hurdle. He once took me aside and said: "People in racing are so suspicious. They can't believe you are so successful unless you're doing something wrong."