'You can call it shrewd, but training is only common sense' - the late bloomer who became the handicap king

Racing Lives is a new weekly series on the lives of people and horses we have recently lost. Here, John Randall remembers legendary trainer and handicap king Reg Akehurst.

Reg Akehurst, who died in May at the age of 94, was a self-made man who became the shrewdest dual-purpose trainer of his generation.

Shrewdness is not measured by Group or Grade 1 victories – though he scored at that level both on the Flat (with Gold Rod) and over jumps – but by reputation and success in big betting races.