tony rushmer

The inside story of how master trainer Henry Cecil achieved the greatest comeback ever seen in the sport of horseracing.

Racing broadcaster Derek Thompson called him 'the greatest trainer of all time'.

Trainer Paul Nicholls referred to him as 'a true legend'.

Clare Balding referred to him on Twitter as 'one of the true greats and a gentleman. Frankel his crowning glory'.

The man they were referring to was Henry Cecil. The champion trainer and national treasure had died, aged seventy, on 11 June 2013, and racing had lost one of its legendary and most loved figures.

That wasn't how the scene looked seven years earlier.

In 2006 many in the racing industry had written Cecil off. Personally, and professionally, Cecil was at his lowest ebb. But that was about to change.

Henry Cecil staged the greatest comeback ever seen in horseracing, much of it despite suffering serious ill-health, which culminated in the success of Frankel, Timeform's highest rated horse of all-time.

Now, for the first time, writer Tony Rushmer tells this incredible story. Tony had joined the Cecil stables in 2006 and so witnessed this story of personal and professional redemption from the inside. With the support of the Cecil family, Tony brings vividly to life The Triumph of Henry Cecil.

This is the story of Cecil's astonishing revival, told by those people who witnessed it first-hand.