The trainer years ahead of his time who made Cheltenham a second home

Festival Legends: Fulke Walwyn

Comparisons between the titans of yesteryear and the giants of today are never easy to make. Fulke Walwyn v Paul Nicholls is a tough match to call – if you ignore the bare figures, which put the younger man already some 1,000 winners ahead – but when no less a judge than the Post's resident wise owl John Randall declares Walwyn "Britain's greatest trainer of jumpers", it's prudent to sit up and take notice.

The Wrexham-born former 9th Lancer, a Grand National-winning amateur rider on Reynoldstown in 1936, racked up 'just' 2,188 winners in a 51-year training career, but it has to be remembered this was an era when championships could be won with 50 horses and the top trainers didn't yet sit at the wheels of unstoppable juggernauts.

When it came to success at the highest level, however, Walwyn was years ahead of his time and Cheltenham was where he made his deepest impression.