Your help is needed: memories, stories and anecdotes of legendary trainer Fulke Walwyn are being sought for a new book

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Did you know Fulke Walwyn? Count yourself lucky, if so, to have had one of the great trainers in the history of jump racing in your life, even if only tangentially. 

Your stories, anecdotes and insights concerning the great man are now wanted, as a book about his life is finally in the works. Simon Christian, a high-achieving former trainer who was Walwyn's assistant, is behind the idea and he wants to hear from you, if you might have a contribution to make on this subject.

"Everybody knows that he was champion trainer five times, that he rode a Grand National winner, trained a Grand National winner and had good horses like Mandarin and Mill House," Christian tells the Front Runner. "That can all be looked up."

What he wants is to put together something deeper and detailed, something that conveys to readers the true spirit and character of a man who was a big name in our game for half a century. "There's no book out there. 

"One or two people wanted to do it, that I know of. John Oaksey was very close to doing it. But I'm not sure Fulke really wanted one done, he was always looking to the future rather than talking about the past.

"When you've spent a lot of time with people, you do hear about the past. There's some good stories out there."

The Front Runner has a copy of 'Fulke Walwyn: A Pictorial Tribute' by Bryony Fuller, which seems to be the closest thing to a biography that's been published. It starts with him riding a winner at Cardiff in April 1930, his first ride under rules, and ends with a June 1990 picture of Walwyn, on his final day with a training licence, sitting next to Christian in the stands at Stratford.

Somewhere in the middle is a series of pictures of Mandarin's extraordinary success in the Grand Steeplechase de Paris 1962, when horse and jockey somehow coped with the 'bit' in Mandarin's mouth breaking after just three fences. A map of the course illustrates how helpful it would have been to have the ability to steer.

Anyway, this and many other racing moments could be brought to life by such a book. It seems a great idea, indeed a potentially important one. A good dose of racing lore brings fans closer to the sport. We need to preserve as many of the old tales as we can, while they are still being told in the bars around Lambourn.

Mandarin (left) takes the water jump before going on to win the 1962 Grand Steeplechase de Paris

"He saw huge change in racing," Christian continues. "When he started, the whole season was dominated by the Grand National and there wasn't really a Cheltenham Festival as such. There was a meeting that developed over the years, which he supported terrifically.

"He's quoted as saying he always believed that jump racing would be more popular than Flat. He said that in the 40s. It was quite prophetic. 

"He was a great supporter of the new sponsorships of the Hennessy and the Whitbread. Those races, in the 60s, were almost as valuable as the Cheltenham Gold Cup. I think, once or twice, they may have been more valuable. They were different times."

Christian is casting his net wide, seeking "anybody who maybe worked there or had family connections or were owners or met him and have a memory of him". If you're such a person, you can get in touch with Christian by emailing fwalwynstory@gmail.com.

Christian was a young man when he joined Walwyn's team at Saxon House in the late 1970s. The Dikler was still there and the new assistant was on hand to observe the careers of Diamond Edge, Special Cargo and Crimson Embers among others.

When Christian went on to his own training career (you might recall his Nakir winning the Arkle), he stayed on friendly terms with Walwyn and rented a yard called Saxon Gate from him. It's the stable from which Archie Watson now trains quite a different type of horse.

"I think he would be delighted that the place is still in use and so successful," Christian muses, rejecting my suggestion that Walwyn might have preferred a jumps man to be in residence. "He liked young people to do well."

Christian is under no illusions about the scale of the task he faces in assembling a book based on such a wide-ranging career, but he is determined to make a go of it. "As one gets older, life changes a bit and one has time to do things that one's thought about or talked about." 

Please help if you can.

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The Front Runner is our unmissable email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, the reigning Racing Writer of the Year, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content.