LIGHT SHONE TO SAVE A LEGEND

Graham Buddry recalls the day Light Shift revived Sir Henry Cecil's ailing fortunes with an Epsom triumph

Henry Cecil was a legend in his own lifetime.

With his family history it was clear that he would become a racehorse trainer, although his laid-back, playboy lifestyle at the time augured against his being successful.

That perception was very quickly laid to rest.

The older you are the more of his great horses you may recall, from incredible two-year-olds to Derby winners or my own personal favourite, Kris, that superlative miler.

Yet in a rollercoaster career it is doubtful if any winner he had bore more important significance than the less favoured of two runners in the 2007 Oaks, Light Shift.

Cecil sent out his first runner, Celestial Cloud, at Ripon in May 1969, and it won allegedly. The judge awarded the race to Celestial Cloud in the absence of a photo finish system at the track back then, even though Cecil's wife, Julie, was convinced it got beat and a press photo right on the line seemed to back this up too.

Perhaps Cecil was a "lucky" trainer or perhaps the blue touch-paper had just been lit.

One of Cecil's early patrons was 101-year-old Mrs Hope Goddard Iselin who lived on a now defunct area of Long Island called Wolver Hollow and it was her horse of the same name that stormed home in the 1969 Eclipse Stakes at Sandown Park to give the fledgling trainer his first big race success only months after taking out a licence.

In 1976 Cecil would win the race again with Wolver Hollow's son, Wollow, and two years later would win his third Eclipse with Gunner B.

The 2,000 Guineas was another race that Cecil excelled at. There had been only two trainers in the last 100 years who had won the race in consecutive seasons, John Porter in 1885 and '86, then Alec Taylor in 1917 and '18. Cecil sent out Bolkonski in 1975 and a year later Wollow completed the double..