'I'm probably mad' - Henrietta Knight plans to resume training career after 11-year absence

Henrietta Knight, best known for her handling of triple Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Best Mate, has said her shock return to training will give her "an aim in life" as she hopes to resume her career in the new year.

Knight, who will be 77 next month, has applied to get her licence back after an 11-year absence, having retired from the sport in 2012 to care for her husband Terry Biddlecombe, the former champion jump jockey.

She plans to have a team of around 30 horses at her West Lockinge base near Wantage in Oxfordshire, where she has been running a successful pre-training business.

"I'm probably mad but one does do a few mad things in life," she said. "I've always had ambition and wanted to have an aim in life.

"It will be ten years in January since Terry died and it has taken me time to adjust to giving up my licence, but I've been very busy with the livery yard and doing a lot of work with people's horses.

"I've had over 50 different trainers sending horses here and they go back and win races, but I'd like to go a step further and it would be nice to be training those horses myself."

She added: "We've been talking about it for quite a while and I had to get a lot of people onside. A lot of people think it's a very good idea and others think I probably need a psychiatrist. If you're healthy and well and enjoying life and in touch with the game, which I think I am, why not carry on doing what you love doing best?

"I'm in the process of getting the application sorted and the normal time is two months, but I'm hoping it'll be quicker than that and something will happen by January 1."

Knight will forever be remembered for her achievements with the immensely popular Best Mate, whose 14 wins included six at the highest level. The Jim Lewis-owned chaser won three Gold Cups in a row, 2002, 2003 and 2004, as well as the King George in 2002.

Before Best Mate burst on to the scene, Knight had already shown her rare ability with chasers through Edredon Bleu, who was also owned by Lewis.

He won an incredible 25 races including the Champion Chase, the King George and four Peterborough Chases as well as a notable success in Ireland in the Clonmel Oil Chase.

Knight has trained more than 700 winners with her best season numerically coming in 1995-96 with 58 winners. In the latter part of her career she enjoyed more big-race victories with the likes of Calgary Bay, Racing Demon and Somersby, who all raced in the colours of Tim Radford.

Henrietta Knight and Terry Biddlecombe with their hero Best Mate at West LockingeCredit: Julian Herbert

In recent times, Knight has been active at the sales in her role as racing manager to late owner Mike Grech, sourcing last season's Irish National winner I Am Maximus and Grade 1 winner Brandy Love. She has written three books about racing, including about other trainers, and plans to utilise her wealth of contacts to build up her team.

"I've got the promise of the younger horses I have here, to keep them in training and see them through, and what I'm looking for now is for people to send me older horses, handicappers or even some horses off the Flat to go juvenile hurdling," Knight said.

"I've got some owners but I'm definitely in the market for more. I'd like some big spenders. Since I gave up training, I've written three books, one of which was about training and I went around over 30 National Hunt yards in England, Ireland and Scotland. I feel what I learned there is going to help me even further with my training."

Former trainer Brendan Powell, who has had roles with Joseph O'Brien and Rebecca Menzies, is to become Knight's assistant. She will continue her pre-training business and hopes to use the jockeys who help her on that side on the track, such as Paul O'Brien, Brendan Powell jnr, James Bowen, Nick Scholfield and Johnny Burke.

"Brendan is coming to assist me as I don't think you can train properly these days without someone to do it with," said Knight.

"I couldn't have done it without Terry years ago and you need to have four eyes rather than two. Brendan would be similar to Terry as he's an ex-jockey who is very experienced. He knows the ins and outs of the game and trained around 700 winners himself."

When asked what she wanted to achieve most on her return to training, Knight said: "I want to be back in that winner's enclosure at Cheltenham. I love Cheltenham, it's my dream place and that's where I'd like to be again.

"I'm looking forward to it, I have a very good relationship with people in the game and the other trainers have been fantastic. I'm actually the same age as Jessica Harrington and if I can do half as well as her, I'll be very happy."

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