Former trainer Lungo pays tribute to Mirjan owner Bob Blumberg

Former trainer Len Lungo has paid tribute to Bob Blumberg, owner of successful dual purpose horse Mirjan among others, who has died following an illness. He was 70.

Blumberg, who had retired to Spain having run a successful bathroom business from Bristol, was involved in a number of horses including Mirjan, who won the 2000 Swinton Hurdle and 2004 Northumberland Plate, and 2002 Pertemps Final winner Freetown.

"Bob had not been well for some while but the time he did have, he packed a lot in," said Lungo.

"Horseracing was his main interest and we trained some lovely horses for him. Mirjan was the best of them but he had others that won many races.

"If he thought they had a real good chance he wasn't frightened to put his money down. I remember once we won a very bad race in soft ground and Bob had £20,000 on it at 4-1. He got that nervous he spent the time of the race walking round the garden."

Lungo continued: "He also had a share in Freetown. He was at Cheltenham but wasn't expecting it to win and when it came to the time for photographs he hadn't brought a jacket. Someone lent him one but Bob was a big man and the jacket was six inches off buttoning at the front, so he held a Racing Post in front of him to hide the gap.

"He was a very generous and gregarious man. I'll miss him. When I went to Spain we met up several times. He was great company."

Blumberg, who died on Sunday, also had horses with Jim Old and Martin Pipe. His funeral will be held in Spain on Tuesday.