Legendary trainer Knight to return after 11 years

Henrietta Knight (left) and her husband Terry Biddlecombe (right) helped train Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Best Mate

Henrietta Knight, trainer of three-time Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Best Mate, is to return to training after retiring 11 years ago.

She has spoken to the British Horseracing Authority to gain her licence and hopes to return on 1 January with a team of 25 to 30 horses.

"I like doing things and I miss the buzz," she told the Daily Telegraph.

Knight sent out more than 700 winners from her Lockinge yard in Oxfordshire.

"Everything, all the facilities including the schooling field, is still here at Lockinge," she added.

"Because I've trained before I have been excused from the three trainers' modules a new trainer would normally be required to sit at the British Racing School, but there is still quite a lot of red tape to get through so I imagine it won't come through until after Christmas."

After matching the achievement of the great Arkle at Cheltenham, Best Mate missed the 2005 race with a burst blood vessel and died in November that year at Exeter after suffering a suspected heart attack.

His ashes were shattered on the Cheltenham course.

Knight was married to three-time champion jump jockey Terry Biddlecombe, who died in 2014 aged 72 after a lengthy illness.

She also trained Edredon Bleu, who the Champion Chase in 2000, ridden by AP McCoy.

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