WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Gay Trip was always Terry Biddlecombe's horse but when the little bay raced to a 20-lengths victory in the 1970 Grand National his popular rider was forced to watch on television, from a hospital bed.

"It didn't really bother me that I was missing the winning ride," Biddlecombe recalls. "I had been in hospital three or four weeks. I was in pain. I'd had a horse fall on top of me, I'd lost the use of a kidney and I was glad just to be still around. In any case, the National is such a lottery."

A reminder of that came 12 months later. Reunited with Gay Trip and favourite to repeat Pat Taaffe's triumph, he fell at the first. The following year, he and Gay Trip narrowly avoided a similar fate, only to be beaten two lengths by Well To Do.

Now 54, the three-times champion jump jockey can look back on a victory greater than any achieved on the track, having spent 10 lost years in the grip of alcoholism. Two broken marriages and a failed attempt to start a new life in Australia led him finally to confront his dependency. He has not touched a drink for two years.

He owes much, he says, to the Hereford bloodstock firm of Russell, Baldwin and Bright, who employed him as an agent during his rehabilitation. It was through that association, also, that he became reacquainted with Henrietta Knight, the Oxfordshire trainer to whom he has become more than just a racing partner. They plan to marry this summer.

"I can't be complacent," he said, "because you are never cured. But I'm delighted to be back in racing, I have five super children whom I see every other weekend and I'm engaged to a wonderful lady. I've never been so happy."