The dairy farmer and trainer who defied the odds all of his life

The Gold Cup-winning trainer Robert Alner, who died on Monday at the age of 76, was a dairy farmer whose roots were deep in the Dorset countryside, and it was only after winning the point-to-point riders' championship at 48 that he became a professional trainer.

As well as his 1998 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Cool Dawn, his big-race winners included Kingscliff (Betfair Chase), The Listener (Irish Hennessy), Miko De Beauchene (Welsh National) and Gold Cup runner-up Sir Rembrandt. But tragedy struck when he was paralysed in a car crash in 2007.

Robert Henry Alner was born on November 21, 1943 at Locketts Farm, near Droop in Dorset, which was to be his base for the whole of his career.