Audacious training legend remains up for the challenge

Mick O'Toole attempts to decline a request for an interview in his inimitably disarming way. "One of your colleagues wrote about me in a series, 'Where are they now' it was called. That must have been 20 years ago. If people had forgotten me then, they'll hardly remember me now."

How could anyone forget Mick O'Toole? The term 'character' is wholly inadequate for the young-at-heart octogenarian former trainer whose big-race wins and tilts at the betting ring are the stuff of legend.

No personality in Irish racing has commanded such enduring affection over the past 50 years. Respect too, for he was a brilliant and audacious trainer who targeted horses of varying ability with deadly precision.