Ivor Herbert: Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning trainer and distinguished writer

Ivor Herbert, a Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning trainer and one of racing's most distinguished writers, has died at the age of 96.

A remarkably versatile man, he trained Linwell to win the Gold Cup in 1957 and then wrote a succession of definitive books about the sport's most famous figures including Arkle, Red Rum and Vincent O'Brien.

He collaborated with the Princess Royal on her equestrian autobiography and was arguably one of the three most eminent horseracing writers of his generation, along with John Oaksey and Hugh McIlvanney.

Edward Ivor Montgomery Herbert was born on August 20, 1925 in South Africa, where his British parents were living at the time. His father, Sir Edward Herbert, was a prominent civil engineer.

He went to Eton, served with the Coldstream Guards from 1944 to 1947 – being seconded to Intelligence and reaching the rank of captain – and then took an MA in economics and English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Having ridden a few point-to-point winners, he pursued a dual career as a racehorse trainer and newspaper journalist.

He was employed by industrialist David Brown as his private trainer at Cadmore End, near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, from 1953 and went public in 1955, the year after he became a feature writer and columnist for the Evening News in London.

Ivor Herbert: trainer, journalist, author and documentary maker dies aged 96

Brown was the boss of Aston Martin and gave his initials to that company's high-performance DB sports cars made famous in the James Bond films.

One of the horses bought for him by Herbert was Linwell, who won the Mildmay Memorial Chase at Sandown in January 1956.

In the 1957 Cheltenham Gold Cup Linwell was only eighth in the betting, but he was sent to the front at the second-last by Michael Scudamore and held on by a length from Kerstin.

Herbert did not receive the official credit for training Linwell, as the racing authorities frowned on journalists holding a trainer's licence, so his head lad Charlie Mallon held it instead.

Linwell might have won three Gold Cups, but he fell in 1958, leaving Kerstin to win by default, and finished second to Roddy Owen in 1959, having been hampered when the leader, Pas Seul, fell at the final fence.

Long before Sir Michael Sobell owned Flat-race champions Troy and Sun Princess, he bought Flame Gun and Herbert turned the gelding into a top-class two-miler, winning the Cotswold (now Arkle) Chase at Cheltenham and the Champion Novices' Chase at Manchester in 1959.

The trainer scored a double at the Cheltenham Festival that year, as he also won the Cathcart Chase with Gallery Goddess.

He trained at Binfield in Berkshire in the 1960-61 season, with the licence in his own name for the first time, and had a good hurdler, Perhapsburg, who became the sire of Grand National winner Lucius.

After a four-year gap to concentrate on writing, he spent his last three years as a trainer based at Bradenham in Buckinghamshire.

Arkle: Ivor Herbert's Arkle: The Story of a Champion was a best-seller and remains the definitive accountCredit: Gerry Cranham

Soon after his Arkle biography was published in the autumn of 1966 one of his horses, Maigret, finished one place behind Arkle when the supreme champion came second in the King George VI Chase, having sustained his career-ending foot injury.

Two months later Maigret won the Coventry (later Racing Post) Chase at Kempton.

That gelding was owned by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, a top producer-director partnership in the film industry. They had employed him to write the script (jointly with Launder) for their 1966 film The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery, starring Frankie Howerd.

Herbert moved from the Evening News to the Sunday Express in 1970, and to the Mail on Sunday in 1980, while his writing about racing consisted mainly of books about the leading steeplechasers and trainers.

Anyone who wants to know about Arkle, Red Rum or Vincent O'Brien must consult his biographies, which are suffused with deep knowledge, insight and enthusiasm. Arkle: The Story of a Champion was a best-seller and, with various updates, it remains the definitive account.

He vowed not to write another equine biography but changed his mind when Red Rum won his second Grand National. The resulting book's first edition was published in 1974, and it was updated several times up to Red Rum's death in 1995.

Ivor Herbert with Vincent and Jacqueline O'Brien (seated) at the launch of Vincent O'Brien: The Official BiographyCredit: Caroline Norris (racingpost.com/photos)

His book about Vincent O'Brien – in collaboration with the trainer's wife, photographer Jacqueline O'Brien – was first published in 1984, and was greatly expanded in 2005 under the title Vincent O'Brien: The Official Biography.

Herbert was also co-author with the Princess Royal of her 1991 equestrian autobiography Riding Through My Life.

He wrote more than 20 books, and his other subjects included the Queen Mother, Fred Winter and Mercy Rimell, as well as non-racing topics. He also wrote novels, plays and TV scripts.

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