'He drove them through the middle of Malton on long reins, ten or 12 of them - it didn't go down well with the townsfolk'

Pat Rohan, by all accounts, was something of a maverick. "A man on his own, eccentric and lovely," is how his former training colleague Maurice Camacho describes him, which seems to translate roughly into common parlance as "a bit barmy" – in a good way, of course.

Time was when Pat, perhaps bored with doing things by the trainers' handbook, would unilaterally decide to educate his unbroken yearlings by giving them a spin round the town square in Malton, with scant regard for either the Highway Code or the local constabulary.

"It was quite a sight," chuckles Camacho. "He used to drive them through the middle of town on long reins, ten or 12 at a time, completely chaotic, and I have to say it didn't go down very well with the townsfolk."