Jack at 80: many happy returns to our legendary friend in the north

Racing's most active octogenarian is hard at work, as usual. Jack Berry knows no other way than to get up in the morning and get on with it, and he isn't about to abandon that philosophy simply because the sun has risen on his ninth decade. The habits of a lifetime are, after all, for life.

He lays down the hedge-trimmer, inspects his work, rakes the clippings into a pile. He's wearing a red shirt, because he always does, the sleeves always metaphorically rolled up ready for the next job. He doesn't look as though he turned 80 on Saturday.

"I've always got up early and worked hard all my life. I think that's what keeps me going," he says, with just a hint of that Yorkshireman's healthy disdain for soft hands and easy living. "I'm one of eight children, I was in the middle, and me and my sister Betty did all the errands. Always busy.