Trevor Hemmings: a lover of big, tough horses who got the job done in the end

"It stands for the working man in the north," Trevor Hemmings once said in explanation of his commitment to wearing a flat cap so much of the time, even, he joked, at breakfast. And he had what might be called a blue-collar taste in horses, favouring tough, hardy, durable types who could be relied upon to get the job done in the end.

Flat racing is more expensive than the winter game, of course, and Hemmings was a man who liked to keep costs under control. Still, he could surely have made a pretty serious impact at York and Newmarket and possibly even Epsom if he had any interest in the fast and the flashy. But his total number of winners on the Flat barely climbed into double figures.

A big, imposing beast was what he loved, the sort of horse who, if it were human, could put in a shift down the mine and then play 80 minutes of rugby. Not only did his horses not mind getting their hooves dirty, they positively needed to do so, because the absence of mud would favour something a bit zippier.