Exclusive: Legendary trainer Henrietta Knight to return to horse racing after 11 years

Henrietta Knight, who famously trained Best Mate to win three Cheltenham Gold Cups, is to start training again following a hiatus of 11 years.

Knight, 76, who retired in 2012, has spoken to the British Horseracing Authority, has set the process of applying for her licence in motion and hopes to be ready to go on January 1 with a team of 25 to 30 horses.

“People will probably think I’m mad starting again when most people are stopping,” she told Telegraph Sport. “But I like doing things and I miss the buzz. Everything, all the facilities including the schooling field, is still here at Lockinge.

“Because I’ve trained before I have been excused from the three trainers’ modules a new trainer would normally be required to sit at the British Racing School but there is still quite a lot of red tape to get through so I imagine it won’t come through until after Christmas.”

Knight, who once taught history and biology in a convent school and was heavily involved in eventing, finishing 12th at Badminton in 1973 before going on to chair the selectors for the British team, had a stellar training career first time round.

Not only did she send out the hugely popular Best Mate to become the first horse to win three Gold Cups since Arkle in 2002, 2003 and 2004, but also won the Champion Chase with Edredon Bleu. Her relationship with Terry Biddlecome, the former jump jockey, was a heartwarming backdrop to the glory years.

‘Cheltenham’s where I love – I can’t wait to get back’

Both horses won the King George VI Chase while she also won the Stayers Hurdle with Karshi, Sun Alliance Chase with Lord Noelie and won Huntingdon’s Peterborough Chase eight times.

“Cheltenham’s where I love,” she said, “and I can’t wait to get back there. I hardly ever had a runner in the National. The emphasis will be on trying to find a few chasers to take me back to Cheltenham. I’m very excited and want to get going.”

Having trained over 100 point-to-point winners in the 1980s, first time round Knight started in 1989. Biddlecome joined her in 1993 and they trained together until 2012 when Knight had to quit in order to look after her ailing husband. Biddlecome died in 2014 and she subsequently wrote a book about their relationship called ‘Not Enough Time.’

Behind the scenes, however, she has been as busy as she was when she was training. Initially she helped Mick Channon when Tim Radford sent his horses from Lockinge to West Ilsley. More recently she has been running a thriving pre-training yard and some 50 trainers from across the country and even Scotland have sent her horses to teach to jump. Jockeys Paul O’Brien, Brendan Powell and James Bowen are in schooling for her on a regular basis.

Apart from Not Enough Time she has written two other books since she ‘retired’ about trainers and jockeys. She found visiting and interviewing 30 trainers in Britain and Ireland for the book fascinating and, she says, it taught her a lot more about training.

Sourcing a few decent horses should not be a problem for the person who found Best Mate. She has kept her eye in buying horses while working as racing manager to the late Mike Grech including finding last year’s Irish National winner I Am Maximus and Grade One hurdler Brandy Love.

Brendan Powell snr, a Grand National winning jockey and former trainer who has had stints working with Joseph O’Brien and Rebecca Menzies since, will join as her ‘assistant’ and she will continue the schooling and jumping service for fellow trainers. “Terry did a large part of it and it is hard to do it all yourself which is why Brendan will be coming,” she added.

“I love the jumping side of it. But when you send a horse back to a trainer and it starts winning it just makes me wish I was actually training. We’ve got a lot of young horses here but being three or four a lot of them won’t be on tap for a while so I’ll have to go and a buy a few. I’m the same age as Jessica Harrington, I’m active and healthy and want to keep going.