Passion, joie de vivre and an infectious love of the sport – racing will never be quite the same without Alastair Down

If, in 12 months' time, in racing's annual reckoning of attendance numbers, there appears a sharp downturn for the afternoon of December 12, 2024, the sport shouldn't begin a wailing and a gnashing of teeth over declining popularity and decreasing relevance. The figures will simply show that on a raw and bitter mid-winter's day, mostly anybody with a passion for the game – the kind that might routinely take them to the track even in sub-zero temperatures – was gathered at the College Chapel in Cheltenham to mark the passing of one of their own. 

Through a life that touched, and was touched by, more or less every aspect of the game, Alastair Down gathered a small army of precious friends, to the point where, on Thursday, the entire industry on both sides of the Irish Sea seemed to have been put on hold in his memory.

Champion trainers past and present rubbed shoulders in the pews, from Martin Pipe to Willie Mullins, with Alan King, Nigel Twiston-Davies, Henry Daly, Venetia Williams, Jonjo O'Neill and Richard Phillips in the wings. Sir Mark Prescott and Jamie Osborne boldly represented the Flat in accordance with Alastair's policy of racing diversity and inclusion.

The rest home for retired jump jockeys seemingly had to make do for the day without Ruby Walsh, Richard Johnson, Bill Smith, Andrew Tinkler and Carl Llewellyn, with Adam Kirby down from Newmarket, although the game's 'hamster wheel' being what it is, members of the current weighing room were claimed by Taunton and Warwick, no matter the import of the occasion.

From Alastair's press career, the survivors of the Sporting Life, Weekender and Racing Post were out in force, recalling missed deadlines through the ages. His former TV colleagues – not least Alice Plunkett, Andrew Franklin, Graham Goode and John Fairley – preferred to describe his chaotic, barely existent, approach to preparation as "improvisation" or "spontaneity".

Even the local racecourse, past and present, must have been severely depleted, to judge by the appearance of Edward Gillespie, Simon Claisse and Ian Renton. In more lordly fashion, the Duke of Devonshire, 'Stoker' Hartington, added gravitas.

The Chaplain The Rev'd Dr Adrian Samuel walks down the aisle to begin Alastair's memorialCredit: Edward Whitaker

The order of service for Alastair's memorialCredit: Edward Whitaker

There were no doubt people in the room who had no connection with racing, but more common were those – many of them who no doubt went unspotted by this observer – who featured in more than one of Alastair's Venn diagrams, in intersecting circles marked 'Cotswolds pubs', 'Irish pubs', 'heavy drinking' or 'outside for a quick fag', such was the broad and all-encompassing nature of the great man's friendship.

The most personal and poignant moments of the service, of course, came from family; from his ex-wife Frances, son James, who spoke in his eulogy of the "staggering amounts of love" his father found in racing, which lived alongside the "demons and terrible decisions" familiar to all who knew racing's troubled five-time writer of the year; and daughters Camilla and Clare, who recalled the amazement of the medical professionals who, at the end, marvelled at his evident enthusiastic drinking habit, his "arteries like steel bars" and, in short, his "still being alive".

Alastair's son James gives the eulogyCredit: Edward Whitaker

Hugs for his daughters Clare and Camilla (right)Credit: Edward Whitaker

The overriding message was that while Alastair's flaws and addictions wreaked havoc in his own life and those of others, those who loved him learned to live with them, taking by way of compensation his passion, joie de vivre and infectious love of racing, for which he gladly took on the role of evangelical advocate.

Prescott noted that while Alastair plainly "had never ridden over so much as a potato furrow in his life", he had the ability to transport his readers willingly to the heart of the game, although sometimes this responsibility and others weighed heavily on him.

In the quoted words of John Francome: "When a drowning man keeps swimming out to sea, you've got to let him go." 

Sir Mark Prescott and Alice Plunkett give their fond memories of AlastairCredit: Edward Whitaker

Plunkett spoke of his good fortune at having attended his own wake, at the renaming of the Prestbury Park press room, but his good fortune couldn't last forever, no matter how blessed he recognised he had been to have racing running through his professional and personal life "like a golden thread".

While he was undoubtedly lucky to have racing, however, as James pointed out, "racing was so lucky to have him".

Alastair would no doubt have been amused by the fact that he was finally getting value for money from two venues that had had their pound of flesh from him: first the school to which he had paid three sets of school fees; then the racecourse where his occasional betting triumphs were greatly outnumbered by afternoons of 'potlessness'.

He would, of course, have been bemused that his life was being celebrated at his favourite track, where his ashes may well find their final resting place, on a non-racing day, but this weekend's meeting will no doubt be watched over, roared at and have joyful tears shed over it by the man who made it his spiritual home.

Racing's great and good will return to the track soon enough, but it will never be quite the same without Alastair Down.

*This piece was filed, late, from the Alastair Down Press Room at Cheltenham racecourse.

Read more on Alastair Down:

Alastair Down: a master conjuror of words and a cherished advocate for racing 

Alastair's love of racing sang from every line - and his ability to tell the story of a race was unmatched 

For 30 years I only knew Alastair Down's public persona - then, after 30 minutes, it was as if I'd known him forever