PENSIONER Ted Cumbor will never forget the day he beat the Scots at their own game.

For he swept the board with his world-renowned stallion, Ayton Perfection, when the 18.1 hand-high Clydesdale was declared the best in show, at the Stallion championships in Glasgow.

Ted, now aged 73, took the coveted Cawdor Cup back with him to Great Ayton, near Middlesbrough - a real injury to Scottish pride.

That triumph was in 1986, and was Ted's crowning achievement.

It was that memory which came to mind when Ted learnt that Ayton Perfection died recently, in Canada, where he had sired the current All-American stallion, Green Leaf Prestige.

"I was very lucky to have him,'' said Ted.

"When you go from Yorkshire into Scotland and win something like the Cawdor Cup, you are doing something marvellous. I always knew he was a world beater. I always had faith in him.''

He said a lot of people thought the best horses were in Scotland and did not realise what they had here.

"He was very affectionate, a good horse to deal with. I had no concerns about him; but he did like Polos. We called him Big Boy. I once took him to get weighed on the weighbridge and he was just short of a ton."

The 23-year-old horse started off his career as a stud in Yorkshire, with seasons in Ireland and Scotland, where in one season alone he covered 44 mares.

A Dr Weber, from Florida, bought Ayton Perfection, then a 12-year-old, for 6,000 guineas, and told Ted he had been prepared to pay a lot more.

The horse was then sold at profit to a horse breeder in Alberta, Canada.

One of Perfection's sons - Ayton Final Command - has won the Toronto Winter Fair three times, while a grand daughter, Carson's Delight, is reigning top mare in both Canada and America.

Ted who has been a horse breeder for 50 years, still has one of Perfection's sons, Ayton Royal Ideal.

"He may have gone, but he has left his mark," he said.