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It's been a quarter of a century since we started - here's how we've seen the sport we love change

Lewis Porteous talks to four major figures who began their current jobs 25 years ago

Ralph Beckett has come a long way since inheriting five horses from retiring trainer Peter Walwyn and launching his own training business from Windsor House stables in Lambourn at the turn of the millennium.

Now a multiple Classic winner who this year conquered Europe's biggest Flat race, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe with Bluestocking, Beckett has built a formidable training operation at Kimpton Down in Hampshire. He has also watched a sport he cherishes change dramatically over the course of his 25-year career. 

It is the same for Alan King, a winner at the highest level over jumps and on the Flat who took over from David Nicholson at Jackdaws Castle in December 1999, the same year in which Jamie Osborne quit the saddle to concentrate on training, while in 2000 apprentice rider Paul Mulrennan took his first rides as a professional.  

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