ITV award for top trainer

Henrietta Knight and her husband and assistant trainer Terry Biddlecombe have been named ITV Sporting Midlanders of the Year for services to horse racing.

The annual ITV Midlander of the Year Awards honour those who have increased the prestige of the Midlands or who have made an outstanding contribution to the social, political, industrial or cultural and sporting life in the region.

Ms Knight and Mr Biddlecombe are probably best known as trainers of Best Mate, who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2002 and 2003 and is currently favourite to win the race for the third consecutive year on 18 March.

Ms Knight said that they were “chuffed to bits at being given the award. I didn’t even know of its existence until Carlton sent us a letter telling us that we had won. But it’s a really nice thing to have been awarded.”

Neither Ms Knight nor Mr Biddlecombe attended the awards ceremony on Saturday 7 February. Instead, they were presented with the award at their yard in Wantage, with Best Mate standing by.

“It was much more appropriate that they presented it here, with the horse too, since it is mainly down to him that we have been awarded it”, Ms Knight told HHO.

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