Looking back on Sir Peter O'Sullevan's triumph in the Triumph

Eyewitness tales

Longserving trainer Philip Mitchell recalls the hugely popular success of Attivo in the Daily Express Triumph Hurdle in 1974 – trained by his Epsom-based father Cyril and owned by a certain Peter O'Sullevan, who did the commentary for the BBC

I had just packed up riding as an amateur and was officially Dad's assistant trainer though he went on holiday to India with Geoff Lewis and gave me a bit of a free rein. There was always the intention to go hurdling wall alith 'Percy' – that was what he was called at home – and Peter O'Sullevan backed him for the Triumph before he ever saw a racecourse at large double-figure odds.

Then he did an electric piece of work at Kempton with another nice horse of Dad's called Proud Knight, who bolted up in the Salmon Spray Hurdle at Fontwell a week later; that made the Kempton work look pretty special, and everything seemed to fall into place after that.