Meet racing's Charlie Dimmock

As always he has been right behind his daughter in her new venture and the nine horses left in the yard belong to him.

Celtic Venture was his, too, but that Lingfield victory which put West on the scoreboard had a bittersweet side. She ran the gelding in a claiming race, which means that a winner can be bid for by ballot and the first claim drawn out of a bag gets the horse.

After Celtic Venture's eyecatching six-lengths win under smart apprentice David Kinsella, they lost the chestnut for £5,000 to Michael Smith, who now has him in training with Ken Ivory.

"Dad always tried to put me off racing but I did quite a lot of eventing and showjumping when I was younger, and by the time I had won the hunt race on a little pony called, aptly, Misguided, I was already badly bitten by the bug," she said.

"I got a permit trainer's licence in February after attending a course at Newmarket and my second runner in that guise, It's Wallace, finished runner-up to one of the Queen Mother's. If you are going to be beaten, get beaten by royalty, I say."

It's Wallace followed up that excellent performance by finishing third at Newbury and Ascot and then was seventh in the high-class Stayers' Hurdle, re-routed from Cheltenham to Sandown because of the foot-and-mouth crisis, beaten 27 lengths by the smart French hurdler Baracouda at 200-1 but still on the bridle two out.

She rates It's Wallace as "the star of the stable". The eight-year-old is a fair handicap hurdler, who was previously trained by Poulton and has also won five times at Plumpton.

"If you can't keep a horse going on 1000 acres of downland then you shouldn't be training," West said.

"My assistant Deena Goad and I are a bit girlie. We believe that horses should be treated like we ourselves would want to be treated.

"They don't get their bottoms smacked here, and when they get to the course it is like a day out for them. I was extremely heartened by Celtic Venture's success because all the horses here go faster than he did.

"It is up to me to capitalise on his win now, but I'm not pushy. I want people to come to me, and make enough impact for someone to say 'I'll send her a horse'.

"For the last year I've just kept my head down, listened and watched. Now I have got my chance."

West, 35, has high hopes of Barrentes. "Nothing we have got can go with her and I aim to run her at Windsor on the 18th of this month."

Another one to watch out for is Florenzar, a filly who should be racing next month. "She is keen, enthusiastic and very pretty - a real girl's horse," West said.

It's Pingu, who ran in a bumper at Ascot in April has the appearance of a dual purpose type, while Glenwhargen, ironically claimed at Lingfield out of Mark Johnston's stable and who needs soft ground, and Make A Wish, a three-year-old three-parts brother to an Italian 2000 Guineas winner, are others to keep an eye on.

If you don't spot them, you won't miss the trainer!