Bridgwater, David

His decision to walk away, which shocked the racing world, came at the start of the 1996/97 season.

David said: 'In my last six months with Mr Pipe I could have retired, just like that - packed up at the age of 25. I had got so low you wouldn't believe it. I like to think that I'm a jolly sort of bloke but I just didn't enjoy what I was doing. I asked myself what the difference was and there was only one thing - Martin Pipe. 

'People tell me I'm crazy and that I could have been champion. I don't think about that - it doesn't interest me at all. I have never considered being champion. Is it worth putting yourself through all that? But none of this means I am unambitious.'

David's love of horses had begun many years earlier back in Knowle, Solihull, where he had been born on 5 January, 1971, and where his father, Ken, trained horses.

David's elder brother, Kenny, acted as assistant trainer while his other brother, Gary, drove the horseboxes. Mum helped out as secretary.

Yet David cherished another ambition away from the world of horses. He was, like most other lads his age, crazy about football and wanted to become a professional footballer. The idea was not unrealistic: his great grandfather, Frank Perry, had been the captain of West Bromwich Albion while his father had, as a goalkeeper, passed a trial at Birmingham.

David had sat on horses almost before he could walk and it was this infinity with them that persuaded the youngster to choose a racing lfe instead.

Aged 12, he sat on his first racehorse, and, two years later, was riding work.

He wanted to leave school at 14 - and, luckily for David, had an understanding headmaster, probably fed up with him bunking off all the time.

He said: 'My one regret is not taking my education seriously. I shiver when I think what would have happened to me if I hadn't made it as a jockey. When I see some of my old mates on the dole and stealing cars, I realise what a risk I took.'

That he did make the grade was due to the guidance from two illustrious masters, Lester Piggott and David Nicholson.

Piggott made him a rider. 'I learned the way you should conduct yourself at the races, especially with owners, and how to school young horses.'

He joined the Newmarket stables of Lester Piggott when the ex-champion jockey was just starting out on a training career.

David recalls: 'Lester didn't say a lot. You just had to watch what he did and try to learn from him. He's a very nice man. A real good bloke.'

Then, as his young body fully developed, increasing weight put paid to David's chances as a Flat race jockey: returning to his Solihull home, he rode a Festival winner for his father on Winnie The Witch.

This was the horse which, at Leicester, on 22 January, 1990, had given David his first winner.

His first ride over hurdles had been on his father's Deadly Going at Warwick a year earlier.

Then came a disastrous four year spell at David Nicholson's, but, if Lester had made David a rider, Nicholson made him a man.

Leaving Nicholson, he took the advice of Peter Scudamore and joined the stables of Nigel Twiston-Davies (1992/93) where, suddenly, the winners began to flow.

It was, indirectly, the beginning of the end for David's time in the saddle.

With his winning total drastically reduced, though still respectable, he took a spare ride on Time Won't Wait in the Martell Red Rum Chase at Aintree.

The horse crashed out at the fifth, smashing the jockey's right arm at the elbow. His foot hung up in the iron, David was dragged across the turf with his broken arm under the horse which then did further damage.

Few people visited him in hospital, a fact that did not escape the invalid rider. 'It didn't bother me. When you're up, you've got so many hangers-on and friends. But when you're down and need a pat on the back, you get nothing.'

He was unable to resume riding until that October but suffered another heavy fall in January 1988 that aggravated his earlier injury.

David rode his final winner on February 9 when getting Red Curate home at Fontwell for Graham McCourt.

Two days later, he damaged his elbow yet again when riding General Assembly at Ascot.

He dismounted for the last time.

He then took the trainers' route and set up stables at Hill House in Lambourn and, miraculously, won with the first three horses he sent out.

In 2001, David moved to Slade Barn Stables on the outskirts of Ford Village in Gloucestershire before finally settling at Wyck Farm, near Stow-on-the-Wold, from where he now still trains.

Biggest wins:

1991:  Swinton Insurance Trophy - Winnie The Witch

1991:  County Hurdle - Winnie The Witch

1993:  Great Yorkshire Chase - Young Hustler

1994:  Scottish Grand National - Earth Summit

1994:  Grand Annual Chase - Snitton Lane

1996:  Stayers' Hurdle - Cyborgo

1996:  Cathcart Chase - Challenger du Luc

1997:  National Hunt Handicap Chase - Flyer's Nap