Biddlecombe's boy

Biddlecombe Snr's 18-year career produced 908 winners. He won the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Woodland Venture for Fred Rimell back in 1967 as well as the Sweeps Hurdle, two Mackeson Gold Cups, the Victor Ludorum and the Welsh National, the Grand Sefton at Aintree and the Triumph Hurdle.

Woodland Venture's Cheltenham triumph was Biddlecombe's greatest hour. He lost his nearside rein jumping the last fence, needing both to give the big horse maximum assistance.

The only way to even-up the reins and get hold of the horse's head was to wind them round one fist.

How do you follow that? Robert doesn't know but he is going to have a good bash at it.

He said: "Dad doesn't ride at all now. He just shouts his orders from ground level on the gallops. He has a loud voice!"

It is surprising that Robert only sat on a horse for the first time twoanda-half years ago. "It was at my uncle Tony's, Dad's brother, who was champion amateur in his day. It seems I am surrounded by champs," he said.

The late start may prove to be a blessing. Trainers often complain that the bad habits picked up by horse-mad kids at riding schools and such, take a long time to ironout and they would rather have the virgin steel to work with.

Robert did it right and went to the Racing School at Newmarket and then started point-to-pointing, in which his winner-tally is well into double figures.

It helped that Lord Cadogan gave him a bold-jumping ex-chaser, Rectory Garden, on which he completed a hat-trick of wins. Of those successes, none was sweeter than the first at Tweseldown, where his father was there to cheer him.

Assistance from jumping expert Yogi Breisner, the original horsewhispering, jockey-making guru, has knocked a few of Robert's rough edges off and top handler Henrietta, who married Terry six years ago, is another factor in the learning curve.

With a strong team in the stable there is plenty of work to do in this particularly leafy corner of Oxfordshire.

Robert rides out four lots a day, which differs from the lots of other trainer's horses, going out in twos and threes, rather in a string.

Robert's father was certain that elusive winner would come and rather unmodestly said: "He has the style of his dad, has good hands and is very positive in the saddle. He's got a brain and horses settle for him. Considering he has only been riding a couple of years, he's got a lot of talent.

"The way he's going at the moment he is having it easier than when I was trying to make my name because he's got 'Hen' behind him and she thinks he's a good rider. His style and approach to a fence is fine, and his hands and heel mode is more than adequate.

"He just wants to polish up his finish a little bit more. Channelled in the right way he could be quite special.

"Sometimes he listens to you, sometimes he doesn't. But then again, a lot of trainers used to tell me what to do and I never took any notice of them!"