'He said I had helped him for five years and he was going to help me'

Trainer David Lanigan can cite his own parents, Vincent O'Brien, Edward O'Grady, John Oxx and Walmac Farm's Johnny Jones as key influences on his career but says candidly that "there will only ever be one Henry Cecil"

He gave me a huge amount of responsibility and, while you were learning all the time, it was a different role to a lot of assistants. We were very hands on and had a big role in running the place.

I turned down a big job in America but said to him that at some stage I wanted to train and so we sat down and he suggested I start at the end of the following year, because Passage Of Time and Light Shift were just turning three.