handy all the way.

​Peter Walwyn, who trained at Seven Barrows before Nicky Henderson and is known as one of the great flat trainers, had his winner at Worcester with Don Verde in a hurdle race, ridden by John Lawrence or Lord Oaksey as he is best remembered. Indeed, that season he trained the winners of 4 races, 3 over hurdles and one steeplechase. In fact, by his retirement in 1999 he amassed 31 National Hunt winners, the last of which, a steeplechase, in 1994. A small number, of course, when compared against his 1,783 on the flat, yet far more than I would have credited him with, if asked.
For no good reason I was not a great follower of the Peter Walwyn stable. When Duncan Keith was his stable jockey and Be Hopeful was a stalwart of the stable, I was probably pleased when he had a winner but much of that was due to him having a stable jockey whose surname was the same as my Christian name. I went off him due to a story I was told that in all honesty might have been plain unjust to his character. I was told that his cousin Fulke Walwyn gave him Mill House to look after and hunt in his retirement and upon visiting the great horse he was furious about the condition he found him in. There were heated words between the two, I was told and a coldness between them thereafter.
This incident does not appear ‘Handy All The Way’, Peter Walwyn’s autobiography. Of course, this could be evidence of the story having some volition or grain of truth about it, as with William Shakspar’s will (that, apparently, is the correct spelling of ‘The Bard’s’ name) declaring nothing to suggest he was the author of the portfolio attributed to him.
I hope the Mill House story is untrue as I found his autobiography as interesting a book on a training career as I have read in quite a while. He doesn’t bore the reader with long chapters on his childhood and does not dwell on his great achievements. He might have gone on and on about Grundy but one fairly short chapter suffices. But what I admire Walwyn for is that he names names. He does not leave a blank space when he is criticising someone. He did not like, for instance, Willie Carson; in fact, he was top of his list of four who he cared nothing for. Owners who caused trouble are named: Roger Hue-Williams ‘could be troublesome at times’, asking to see the horses in their stable but arriving very late. He also had very few good words to say about the Wildensteins, describing the horses sent to him, including the previous year’s St.Leger winner Crow, as ‘a motley collection of well-bred animals’. Crow, he described, as ‘looking very miserable and lean’.
It should be said he admired many more people who he worked with than he disliked. His staff came in for plenty of praise and all you need to know about a trainer is the length of service his employee give them and with Walwyn the majority stayed for twenty years or more. Bad people do not keep staff long in racing, believe me.
Half the book wanders from his years as a racehorse trainer. There are chapters about jockeys, Pat Eddery was held in high esteem, trainers, viruses, vets and vaccines, stable staff and stable craft, Lambourn, country sports, his views at odds with my own, and the future of racing. This was a book that taught me stuff I didn’t know and I enjoy having my ignorance straightened out.
When you read the chapter on Lambourn and what he did for the village even when in retirement, it is difficult to imagine how the place has survived without the input of his ideas and his energy to get things done.
Although he considered Henry Cecil wrong in his opinion, I was heartened to read that Cecil was in favour of the Derby being run after Royal Ascot, as it will be this year, as it is a hobby-horse of mine and if someone of Henry Cecil’s reputation thought it right, then I can’t be the fool some might think me. Walwyn wrote in the year 2000 that the next few years would be crucial for the sport, a sentiment that seems even more pertinent in 2020.