Common sense and an uncommon thirst for knowledge

What does a revolutionary look like? He might have the smouldering eyes of Guevara, or the unflinching expression of Cromwell, or even the luxuriant moustache of Zapata. Revolutionaries do not, as a rule, wear trilby hats, or a slightly nervous half-smile, or lay out the terms of the revolution in a soft rural burr.

It's not an image that beams down from a million student walls, is it? Martin Pipe does not look like the sort of man to storm a barricade or lob grenades at government forces, although we all have our moments. Yet Pipe was the man who overthrew the old order of racing, not by force but by cunning, and installed the new model that sustains today. There have been velvet revolutions, quiet revolutions, glorious revolutions, bloody revolutions. And this one?

"It was just common sense, really," he says, the half-smile evolving into a half-laugh. "Doing the simple things well, and learning from the mistakes. That's what we did."