Ananova:

Fred Winter, one of the greats of National Hunt racing, has died aged 77.

"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.

Winter was champion jump jockey four times and top trainer on eight occasions.

Pitman continued: "He had a stroke about 16 years ago and had been in a wheelchair for a while.

"It's sad but it's more than sad because he was a great man."

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 the hardest to beat of them all soon brought the same brand of steel to his new job as trainer at Uplands Stables in Upper Lambourn.

In l965, just three years after riding Kilmore to victory in the Grand National for Ryan Price, Winter saddled the winner of the world's greatest steeplechase when Jay Trump triumphed for American Tommy Smith.

If that was a memorable entry on to the scene for a young trainer.

Winter eclipsed the achievement the following year, when sending out 50-1 shot Anglo to beat 46 rivals.

Winter was to go remarkably close to an Aintree hat-trick in l973 when the Pitman-ridden Crisp produced one of the best jumping displays seen over the big fences, only to be collared in the final strides by Red Rum, who went on to achieve his own immortality in the race.

Winter's stable was never short of stars in the seventies, as horses like Bula, Pendil, Lanzarote and Midnight Court carried all before them.

It was Midnight Court who finally laid to rest the trainer's Cheltenham Gold Cup hoodoo, a moment which probably gave him more pleasure than anything in his racing life.

He had had no luck in chasing's blue riband up until then, with the untimely death of Lanzarote a particularly harrowing incident.

As a jockey, Winter had no peers, winning two Cheltenham Gold Cups, two Grand Nationals, and countless other top prizes.

He won the jockeys' championship four times, riding a record 121 winners in l952-3.

One of the man's strengths was his ability to bounce back from serious injury, but in the opening race of the l953-54 campaign, he broke his leg so badly that he was unable to return to the saddle until the following season.

Winter's courage and horsemanship were never better illustrated than in the Grand Steeplechase de Paris, which he won on Mandarin against all the odds.

The bit broke in the horse's mouth after only four fences. Most riders would have thrown in the towel and pulled the horse up.

Winter, however, would have none of that. He rode for the remaining three and a half miles without either steering or brakes - an amazing performance.

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