Henrietta Knight has announced that she is retiring from training and has released the following statement on her website:
The End of an Era & New Beginnings
After much deliberation, and largely due to my husband Terry Biddlecombe’s continued ill health, I have decided to hand in my Trainer’s License. I have been incredibly lucky to have experienced some wonderful moments since I first began training in 1989. I am hugely grateful for the backing that I have received over the past years from my family, my loyal owners, my dedicated staff and from numerous top jockeys. Likewise the Press and media have always been tremendously supportive. I would like to thank everybody who has helped me enjoy so many happy days. However, despite the above mentioned decision, I still intend to retain links with the racing world. My neighbour and close friend, Mick Channon, has agreed to continue to train the majority of the horses which are currently in my care. He too enjoys the National Hunt scene and is already making his presence felt in that sphere with recent good winners from only a handful of NH runners. I hope that this change will mark the beginning of a new era and I am looking forward to continuing to handle the horses until they move to West Ilsley for their races. My gallop, schooling fences and loose jumping school will have plenty of use and other new projects are already in the pipeline. There are exciting days ahead.
Henrietta will of course be best remembered as a trainer for her brillant handling of the three time Gold Cup winner Best Mate. We really liked this tribute to Best Mate on youtube ( kudos to jessielover2009 for putting it together).
Henrietta Knight Big Race Wins
Best Mate was not the only horse to benefit from her care and Henrietta also landed two of the other Cheltenham Festival feature races with Karshi winning the Stayers Hurdle in 1997 and Edredon Bleu winning the Champion Chase in 2000. Other big races wins included:
1966 Glenlivet Hurdle (Aintree) Stompin
1997 Stayers Hurdle (Cheltenham) Karshi
1998 Grand Annual Chase (Cheltenham) Edredon Bleu
2000 Lanzarote Hurdle (Kempton) Heart, Sun Alliance Chase (Cheltenham) Lord Noelie, Champion Chase (Cheltenham) Edredon Bleu, Martell Mersey Novice Hurdle (Aintree) Best Mate
2001 Scilly Isles Novice Chase (Sandown) Best Mate
2002 King George VI Chase (Kempton) Best Mate, Cheltenham Gold Cup Best Mate
2003 Cheltenham Gold Cup Best Mate, Clonmel Oil Chase(Clonmel) Edredon Bleu, King George VI Chase (Kempton) Edredon Bleu, Ericsson Chase (Leopardstown) Best Mate
2004 Cheltenham Gold Cup Best Mate
2012 Victor Chandler Chase Somersby
Henrietta Knight Peterborough Chase
Henrietta had a particular affinity with the Peterborough Chase at Huntington. We really do hope BHA and Huntington can consider adding her name to the race title. Her wins came with:
1998-2001 Edredon Bleu, 2002 Best Mate, 2005 Impek 2006 Racing Demon 2007 Racing Demon
Henrietta Knight Awards
Lanson Lady of the Year 2002
Timeform Personality of the Year 2003 (together with Terry Biddlecombe)
7 Guinness Awards at Cheltenham Festival 2002, 2003 & 2004
Horserace Writers and Photographers Association NH Trainer of the Year 2002
Channel 4 Racing Personality of the Year 2003.
Luke Harvey from ATR caught up with her to discuss the highlights of her training career:
