How a mare who wouldn't sell led to a legacy of Group 1 winners - and a Group 1-winning trainer

Bob Cowell, who died on his 93rd birthday last Friday, enjoyed notable success as an owner, breeder and rider during his lifetime, with much of it down to one filly he could not let go.

Robert Houghton Cowell, known universally as Bob, was the son of jumps owner Cecil Cowell and engaged with horses from an early age. 

His son, Group 1-winning trainer Robert Cowell, says: “Dad was a farmer and his parents were massively into point-to-points and hunting. Dad was a point-to-point rider and was infamous on the East Anglian circuit, riding a lot of winners. That’s how his interest in horses started and he got into racing after that and decided breeding horses was quite a lot of fun.”