Fred Winter, one of the greats of National Hunt racing, has died aged 77. Winter was champion jump jockey four times and top trainer on eight occasions.
"He went into hospital on Thursday night and died in the early hours of this morning," his friend and former stable jockey Richard Pitman said.
After retiring from a riding career in which Winter won just about every major prize the sport had to offer, he did not intend to train at all.
He applied for a job as a starter, "just to keep me in racing" but the Jockey Club turned him down. It turned out to be the best thing that could have happened.
Although it was very tough for him at the beginning , the man judged by his fellow jockeys as on of the hardest to beat of them all soon brought the same brand of steel to his new job as trainer at Uplands Stables.
In l965, just three years after riding Kilmore to victory in the Grand National for Ryan Price, Winter saddled the winner when Jay Trump triumphed for American Tommy Smith.