Thank you, Wither Or Which - you were the champion who set the ball rolling

Our columnist reflects on last week's sad death of Wither Or Which, who won the 1996 Champion Bumper at Cheltenham for his father Willie.

You were Wither Or Which. You are in the form book briefly, but it doesn’t tell the story. It’s a book where numbers are more important than words.

Some don’t recall you winning on New Year’s Eve through the Leopardstown fog by 20 lengths under your owner/trainer/jockey, way back in the year when the glove didn’t fit OJ. Some don’t know of that man turning down a small fortune for you to leave the yard to cross the water, like they all did back then, and instead keeping a share and selling the rest for less so he could be a horse trainer rather than a horse trader. Your trainer, specifically.