'He was great fun to ride for': tributes paid to West Tip trainer Michael Oliver

Michael Oliver, the trainer who scaled the sport's greatest height by saddling Aintree regular West Tip to win the Grand National in 1986, has died at the age of 70.

Oliver, who retired in 1991, was based in Worcestershire and also enjoyed success with the prolific Master H, but the finest hour of his career came in the spring of 1986 when West Tip, having his second start in jumping's best-known event having fallen the previous year, prevailed under Richard Dunwoody.

The gelding, who ran in the colours of Peter Luff, a property developer from Wokingham, Berkshire, went on to finish fourth, fourth, second and tenth in the next four Nationals.

Philip Hobbs: 'Michael and his wife Sarah always made me feel very welcome'Credit: Edward Whitaker

Leading jumps trainer Philip Hobbs said: "I rode most of Michael's horses for some time, so would go in regularly to ride out.

"He was great fun to ride for and he – along with his wife Sarah – always made me feel very welcome."

Oliver's talents were evident in how he brought back West Tip from a collision with a lorry that left him with a nasty scar as a young horse.

"That was my fault," Hobbs remembered. "I was late arriving one morning and the horses were walking up and down on the road in front of the yard. I was late because it was foggy and a lorry went past and West Tip shied and ran into the back of it, and that's how he gashed his hind quarters and got an enormous scar for the rest of his life.

"It was horrendous and you wouldn't have thought he was likely to survive it and yet only a fairly short time after it he was winning a novice hurdle at Warwick."

Michael Oliver CV

Full name Michael Edward Oliver
Born Edgbaston, Birmingham, March 7, 1950
Father Roland Oliver (farmer; owner of E.S.B., won NH Juvenile Chase, March 7, 1950
Stables New House Farm, Elmley Lovett, near Droitwich, Worcestershire 1973-91
First winner under rules Straight William, Fakenham, December 22, 1973
Grand National winner West Tip (1986)
Cheltenham Festival winners Von Trappe (1985 Coral Golden Hurdle Final), West Tip (1985 National Hunt Handicap Chase)
Other big-race wins Master H (1976 Haldon Gold Cup, 1977 & 1978 Leisure Caravan Parks (Gainsborough) Chase, 1978 Royal Worcester Spode Chase), West Tip (1985 Anthony Mildmay Peter Cazalet Memorial Chase, Holsten Distributors (Cotswold) Chase), Von Trappe (1985 Feltham Novices' Chase)
Last winner Elite Boy, Wolverhampton, November 20, 1990

Hobbs's brother Peter rode West Tip in his final National and finished fourth on him in the 1987 Cheltenham Gold Cup.

He said: "He helped me in my career with that ride at Cheltenham and he was a great ride at Aintree. He was so clever and could see what was happening before you.

"Michael was a brilliant trainer and brilliant at buying horses; he'd have been a superb bloodstock agent. He knew his horses, that's for sure."