Racing: National appeal as strong as ever for oldest living winner

Sixty-five years ago, Bruce Hobbs became the youngest jockey to win a Grand National. Now, a lifetime of achievement later, he is, at the age of 82, the oldest survivor among those who have climbed on the Aintree pantheon via the saddle. He is also rather embarrassed at still being associated with tiny Battleship's stirring head defeat of the big Irish horse, Royal Danieli, as a 17-year-old in 1938. "I would like to think," he says, "That I did more than that with my time here."

Indeed so. Hobbs went on to become a Flat trainer of considerable note in Newmarket, a Jockey Club member and dedicated server on numerous committees and bodies, and a tireless charity worker. But at this time of year, he is resigned to interest in his greatest feat as a rider.

"It was a wonderful occasion," he admits, "and I enjoyed all the adulation afterwards. Lester Piggott in his heyday didn't get more fuss made of him than I did for three months. But I don't think it turned my head. It wasn't that long afterwards, anyway, that I had to go to fight someone a bloody sight worse than Saddam Hussein, which tended to put it all in perspective."

The 1938 National was one of several milestones: not only youngest, but tallest (6ft 4in) rider on just about the smallest horse (barely 15.2 hands), the last entire to win, and by one of the smallest margins. It also marked the end of that golden inter-war era when wealthy socialite Americans patronised sport in Britain. Battleship was owned by Marion duPont Scott, who not only had vast estates and her own racetrack, stud and pack of hounds in Virginia, but was married to the film star Randolph Scott.

Hobbs was born in New York state when his father Reg was working as horsemaster for another millionaire Anglophile, 'Brose Clark, who won the 1933 National with Kellsboro' Jack. During the 1920s Hobbs senior transferred to Leicestershire, where the Clark family maintained 50 thoroughbreds at their hunting box near Melton Mowbray and where riding and schooling quality horses was as natural to young Bruce as walking.

By the 1938 National, he was a veteran of nearly four years racing, having started in point-to-points at the age of 14 and had actually won on Battleship at Sandown before his 16th birthday. His first taste of Aintree came in 1937, when he rode another of his father's charges, Flying Minutes.

"I'd never been near the place before and I duly walked round the course," he said. "I'd been told all about these horrifying fences, but father used to go like a bat out of hell following hounds across the massive hedges in Leicestershire, and I'd had to follow him, so to be honest the National course wasn't that much of a culture shock. Flying Minutes gave me a marvellous first ride, never made a mistake until three out, where he went arse over end."

Hobbs was in demand for the 1938 National, with offers to ride several better-fancied horses than 40-1 shot Battleship. It took an offer of £300, three times the going rate, from Mrs DuPont to secure his services for her chestnut 11-year-old. "She was determined to run him," Hobbs said. "He had won the American Grand National and she wanted him to win the real thing as well. And after she upped the fee there were no arguments."

A shrewd observation by Hobbs senior helped to realise the dream. "Being an entire, Battleship used to land steep and at an angle, to get his marriage tackle out of the way," said Hobbs. "My father realised this might be a problem over the drops at Aintree and had the reins lengthened. Just as well he did, because the first Bechers surprised him and in gathering himself, his nose was gouging the floor, and without the extra rein I'd have been over his head."

In 1939, Hobbs joined up on day one and served with the Queen's Own Yorkshire Dragoons in the Middle East, where he won a Military Cross and a Palestine Grand National. On his return he was too heavy for race-riding and embarked on the training career that was ultimately, during 20 years at Palace House in Newmarket, to yield stars like Stilvi, Tromos, Tolmi, Jacinth, Take A Reef and the Irish Derby winner Tyrnavos. "It's much easier to be a jockey," he said. "As a trainer, the worries and problems were more, but so were the rewards. Tyrnavos actually gave me more pleasure than Battleship." None the less, Grand National day is now the only time Hobbs goes racing. "I get terribly excited and impatient waiting for them to start," he said. "The fences still take jumping and the race is still a great sporting effort."