Pizzas galore!

47 - Charlottown

It was World Cup summer in England and I was just out of the 11-plus, mad on football and cricket and with no known interest in racing. Yet, like all sporty kids, there were elements that fascinated me. If racing ever came up at school, the jockeys mentioned were Lester Piggott and Scobie Breasley. Because he smiled and spoke with an exotic Australian accent, Scobie was my man and, for some reason, I remember being wildly enthusiastic about his Derby win on Charlottown. It was more than a decade before racing distracted me again.

46 - Dave Roberts

Sporting agents are generally regarded as pond life, thanks to the dealings of certain greedy, egocentric football operatives. Roberts could hardly be more different.

Few even know what he looks like, such is the reclusive nature of his daily grind, yet jump racing revolves around his dealings. Handles the rides of most of the top jockeys and has the ear of every leading trainer regarding running plans, yet somehow manages to keep them all happy. Tony McCoy is just one who says he will forever be in his debt.

45 - Foinavon

Yes, I know he wasn’t a great horse but then nor was that serial loser, Quixall Crossett, and I nearly put him in, too. The point is that everyone has heard of Foinavon and most can recite the circumstances of the 1967 Grand National, which he won only by being so far behind the field that he avoided the notorious pile-up at the 23rd fence now forever named after him. Foinavon, a 100-1 shot, was ridden by John Buckingham who became a jockeys’ valet for decades afterwards but really lived off the Foinavon story.

44 - Freddie Williams

The last of the brave bookmakers on which racing legend is founded. On the day he died, last June, Williams had been betting at Ayr races and Shawfield dogs before suffering a massive heart attack. Ten years earlier, he had a triple heart bypass, yet four weeks later he successfully bid for the coveted number two pitch at Cheltenham in the first such bookies’ auction. Though much of his money was made from a bottling plant in Scotland, Williams was known for his duels in the ring, taking every bet the likes of J.P.McManus wanted. We won’t see his like again.

43 - Reg Hollinshead

Thirty years ago, he was the first trainer I met and even then they called him an elder statesman.

At 84, he still holds the licence at the Staffordshire farm that has seen him produce thousands of winners, often at modest level, and a steady stream of well-rounded jockeys (Walter Swinburn included) that have learned under his tutelage. A man of few words and even fewer holidays, Hollinshead is the epitome of the type that eschews fuss and glamour and just gets the job done. He’ll probably still be training horses and riders at 100.

42 - Peter Scudamore

Utterly driven, he was the ideal stable jockey for Martin Pipe and between them they forged a relationship that revolutionised jump racing and won both numerous championships. ’Scu’, who rode almost half of his 1,678 winners for Pipe, usually went off in front and burned off the opposition, a simple tactic that underestimates the meticulous planning of the stable. Comes from a great racing family - his father, Michael, won the Grand National on Oxo, while his sons Tom and Mike are now jockey and trainer respectively.

41 - Sir Michael Stoute

For training Shergar and three other Derby winners. For his nine trainers’ titles. For handling jockeys such as Kieren Fallon and the younger, wilder Johnny Murtagh with a firm, fatherly patience. For being the best and most consistent flat trainer in Britain in the past quarter-century. For his deafening guffaws at his own jokes and for his delight - as a born and raised Bajan - in putting down the England cricket team. Not least, for his well-rehearsed cabaret spin-and-march to avoid talking to the press.

40 - Peter Bowen