TRAINED by Sharon Watt, a horse called Now Then Sid - bit of a temperamental beggar, so they reckon - won the four o'clock at Sedgefield on Monday, a comfortable 6-1.

Oh So Brave had won the 2.30.

Had that been one of Sharon's as well, the story would have been perfect. What odds against her?

Five years ago, the international eventer and former Bramham Horse Trials winner broke her back and was left completely paralysed when a horse box's hydraulic ramp crashed down on her.

She spent six months in hospital, another four in a wheelchair.

While doctors never gave up hope of her walking again, she was told that she would never, ever, return to the saddle.

Sid having been allowed to put his feet up, or whatever it is that horses do when they've earned a few days off, his trainer spent Wednesday morning on Richmond's historic Low Moor joyously galloping Now Then Auntie, instead.

"You just have to push through the pain, " said Sharon. "I suppose the inspiration was getting back to the horses themselves.

They're all individuals, all have their own character. It's trying to work out what makes them tick, what makes them happy."

Now 38, an eventer since leaving school, she had competed at top trials throughout Europe until the ramp went on the rampage. Now she trains three of her own horses, a permit holder, at Easby, near Richmond.

"I'd managed to duck, but it hit me squarely in the back, fracturing one of my vertebrae and displacing another.

"They put a lot of plates and screws and things in from the back and four weeks later put a load of plates and screws and things in from the front.

"At first I was in hospital in Edinburgh and then for three months in Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, but there were a lot of people there worse off than I was.

"I don't think I ever thought to hell with it, probably because I wanted so much to be back working with horses.

"The hardest thing about being in a wheelchair is that you're dependent on other people. When they allowed me home from Pinderfields at weekends, one of the first things I did was insist on feeding the horses, even though I was in the chair. "It took about an hour and a half, but I'd done it without help."

She'd trained horses to jump while working at Richmond equestrian centre, took a permit in 2003, had three winners in her first season and four last year.

Sid, perhaps nicknamed Hissing, was her first this season.

"Sid's a real sweet heart, honestly, always been talented but never easy. At home he's a pet, here he's good, but he gets himself very uptight at the racecourse.

"When you haven't many horses, you get very attached to them.

They're the most stupid animals, do the most stupid things, but you love them.

"Winning on Monday was brilliant, but it's not the main thing.

If they get around in one piece, I'm happy."

THOUGH not the most docile gallower in equine history, Hissing Sid may be but a pussy cat (if a horse may so be) compared to Tomboy, a ferocious beast which won the Richmond Gold Cup in 1834 by virtue of frightening the other entrants away.

They held race meetings up there, that wondrous Low Moor, from 1765 until August 7 1891, when the last Gold Cup was run and the Zetland family moved their racing interests to Redcar, where principally they remain.

Partly they blamed roughnecks, partly the difficulty in raising prize money. Partly they blamed the good folk of Richmond, too lazy to climb the hill.

Evidence of past glories survives, not least the remains of the Georgian stand - no longer a very grand stand - built in 1776.

A report in 2001 called Richmond's the best preserved "eighteenth through nineteenth century" racecourse in England, and hailed its "national significance."

More than a decade earlier they'd talked of raising £750,000 to restore the grandstand, of inviting royalty to mark the centenary of the last Gold Cup, of promoting the old, oval shaped, racecourse as a major tourist attraction. It was all a non-starter.

The course is now a conservation area, the crumbling remains of the stand on the national register of buildings "at risk". It seems a bit belated, horse and stable door.

Once the all-weather gallops were used by Richmond trainers Mick Naughton and Bill Watts, now only Sharon Watt - whose husband, also Bill, makes fences for racecourses - is up and riding with her string, her shoestring.

She appreciates the history, savours the fresh air and the freedom even more.

"I'm at least 75 per cent back to normal and the funny thing is I think I'm still slowly improving. This is brilliant, I think I even prefer racing to eventing because in eventing your horse had to be tuned to perfection and in racing it's just tuned to the best you can do."

The four o'clock at Sedgefield remains fresh in her memory.

"I'd love some owners, love some horses of a bit better calibre in the yard, but to be winning again was a very good moment."

Summer sun shining on the all-weather, Oh so brave Sharon Watt gazes across the old racecourse towards the handsome hills of Swaledale. "It's funny how things work out, isn't it?" she says.

Heart scare puts paid to Cummins' hopes

STILL just 46, once tipped to be England's first £1m footballer and still affectionately remembered at Sunderland and Middlesbrough, little Stan Cummins is recovering from a heart attack.

"It was blocked arteries, a wake-up call, probably 17 years of eating fatty food in America, " says Stan, now back home in his native Ferryhill.

The attack happened as he was watching television, just over a fortnight ago. "My girlfriend found me curled up on the floor, the pain was so bad.

"For the first 48 hours it was touch and go, but they say I should be fine now, so long as I keep on taking the tablets."

It meant that on doctor's orders he had to give up the chance of managing Wearside League side Ferryhill Athletic, though medics reckon that in a couple of months he should be fit to turn out in the Over 40s again.

"There's just one problem, " says Stan, "I now need them to do something about my knee. . ."

TALK of former England cricketer Fred Titmus in Tuesday's column reminded Martin Birtle in Billingham of the time when Titmus was accidentally impeded in an Ashes match and legendary Aussie wicket keeper Wally Grout refused to knock off the bails.

It also reminded him of a passage, about tributes, in one of Fred Trueman's books.

In England, wrote the Yorkshireman, outstanding cricketers were acknowledged by having the gates, or a pavilion, named in their honour. At Sydney Cricket ground they have the Wally Grout urinals.

DESPITE almost being locked up before the event even began, Middlesbrough barrister Arthur Puckriun has won the British "Iron Man" title - for his age group - for the seventh year in succession.

A year on, his time of 12 hours 24 minutes for the three miles swim, 112 cycle ride and 26 mile run was two hours quicker than in 2004.

"I rather amazed myself, " says the iron man, 67 and no sign of rusting. "I took my old bike and was splodging along (legal term, no doubt) at 26mph."

There were spokes in wheels, however, when, lost in Wolverhampton city centre at 5am, he asked police for directions to the venue. "The officer wouldn't tell me because he said my car was listed on the national computer.

It was because my registration plates had been stolen a few months earlier."

The next big one's in Mexico - five times the distance for each discipline. "I'm looking to break some records, " he says.

TEN years and around 350 goals after joining Bedlington Terriers, John Milner has a testimonial match on Sunday (1pm) when terriers meet a North-East

In a league of their own

THERE wasn't much of Auckland Park: a pit, long exhausted, a Methodist chapel (still singing) and maybe a little village school, blackboard and easeful.

What we'd never realised it had, until Wilf Dixon kindly sent the handbook from 70 seasons since, was its own football league - though not a single team to call its own.

The Auckland Park and District League's chairman was Joe Nicholson, a long serving County man, its secretary Jim Blenkinsopp who became Durham FA secretary and its auditor Bob Middlewood, who for years ran everything else in Co Durham (or seemed, some of the time, to believe that he did. ) Teams ranged from Woodland Celtic to Windlestone Institute, from Shaw, Knight and Co to Shildon Railway Athletic (whose headquarters were listed as the Loco Shed) and from Coundon Victorians to Bishop Auckland Reserves.

Barnard Castle Athletic, and we've still not worked this one out, were said to play in "red and green halves, reversed."

Much has altered, not least in Auckland Park - now verdant again. Perhaps the biggest change of all, however, is that to officiate in games involving 14 clubs, the league could call upon 46 referees.

And Finally...

THE last Northern League player to win a full international cap (Backtrack, July 26) was - of course - that well remembered Ashington centre half, Steve Harmison.

Arnold Alton, a Northern League centre half of rather earlier vintage, reckons that these questions are getting too easy - so for which Football League club, he asks, did 1950s Amateur Cup hero and renowned Bishop Auckland musician John W R Taylor make his two Football League appearances.

The column appears again on Tuesday.

Published: 29/07/2005