The riding great who went on to master the training landscape too

Festival Legends: Fred Winter

There are great Cheltenham jockeys and there are great Cheltenham trainers, but there are very few who scale those twin peaks in one lifetime. The necessary qualifications for such an accolade aren't set in stone, but Fred Winter made absolutely sure by becoming the only man to win Gold Cups, Champion Hurdles and Grand Nationals both in and out of the saddle. Even in the modern era, when utter domination by a small coterie has become the norm, the record stands.

Frederick Thomas Winter, born in 1926 in Andover, Hampshire, the son of a jockey-turned-trainer, began his riding career on the Flat at the age of 13, tipping the scales at 5st 7lb, but was eventually beaten by his rising weight and reluctantly pursued a career over jumps. His initial lack of enthusiasm, however, was more than made up for by a fierce determination that eventually carried him to unprecedented celebrity, four jockeys' titles and a record tally for the time of 923 winners, despite frequent and debilitating injuries.

The first of his three Champion Hurdles as a rider came in 1955 on Clair Soleil, trained by Ryan Price, who also supplied him with the other two, in the shape of Fare Time (1959) and Eborneezer in 1961, the year he landed his first Gold Cup, on Saffron Tartan for Don Butchers.