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John Ciechanowski, who died on Wednesday aged 86, was a well-known amateur rider and the Maktoum family's first trainer in Britain.
The advancing years appeared to have little effect on Ciechanowski, who continued to ride out several times a week for trainers such as Mick Channon, Noel Chance and Barry Hills until he was 84, arriving for work as early as 5.30am.
He last rode in a race (a charity event at Newbury) in 2005.
John Ciechanowski was born on October 31 1921, the son of a Polish diplomat who held a senior post at his country's embassy in Washington.
John was educated at Ampleforth, and found his enthusiasm for racing when he heard a radio broadcast of the 1935 Cheltenham Gold Cup, in which Golden Miller narrowly beat Thomond.
As he later recalled: "I thought, 'This is for me.' After that all I wanted to do was racing."
Having left school, he went to the family estate in Poland, spending the summer of 1939 riding and shooting.
Then the war intervened: "On September 1, at six o'clock in the morning, I was on my way to a little shoot I had organised. The local policeman bicycled up and asked me if I would mind not shooting that day, so that the local population would not be frightened.
"I did not understand. The policeman pointed to the sky, where aeroplanes drifted overhead. It was nothing unusual. Manoeuvres usually began after the end of the harvest.
"This time the planes were German."
Ciechanowski, still only 17, had the foresight to brand the family's horses and cattle, then volunteered to fight the Germans.
On being rejected because of his age he sought refuge at his grandmother's apartment in Warsaw.
Having persuaded the German embassy to grant him an exit visa, he made his way to Paris, where his mother had a flat.
His family, meanwhile, had gathered at Angers, and after the Occupation he joined them there before going on to Britain.
He later claimed that he spent his first three nights sleeping in a tent he erected next to the last fence at Haydock Park racecourse.
Ciechanowski served in tanks with the Polish Armoured Division, and took part in the Normandy landings, during which he was wounded.
By the time the war ended he was in the British sector of occupied Germany, where he came across one of the mares that he had branded at home six years earlier.
"We found one stud that had been run by the SS during the war, which had a lot of Italian bloodstock," he recalled.
"They had been swapping feed for horses with the Italians. The Germans kept racing going as a way of producing horses en masse for military purposes.
"The varied terrain of the long Russian front needed them."
Determined to make a career in racing, Ciechanowski spent three seasons as an apprentice to the trainer Tom Masson at Lewes, then a further season at the French national stud. He had a spell training in Brazil before taking a post at the Rothschilds' stud in France.
An attempt to run his own training operation at Chantilly was a failure, and Ciechanowski became a freelance rider and worked for The Sporting Life in Paris. When the paper's editor queried his petrol expenses Ciechanowski was furious, and resigned in protest.
Ciechanowski rode as an amateur jockey throughout Europe, and was champion of France. In 1971 he was assistant to the French trainer Maurice Zilber before leaving to work first with Tom Jones (1972-73) and then Vincent O'Brien (1973-76).
He worked with horses in Iran and Norway before, in 1980, being invited to train for the Maktoums, the ruling family in Dubai; he organised the first race meeting to take place in the Gulf state.
After two years he returned to England to train for the Maktoums at Lambourn. The stable turned out only 17 winners, however, and the operation was closed down after three years.
Ciechanowski twice rode in the Grand National. On L'Empereur, in the race won by Jay Trump in 1965, he was going well when "at Becher's the second time round Dave Dick's horse Kapeno fell, and nearly knocked me over.
I had nothing in my hands going to Valentine's, but then he started to pick up again and we finished sixth." In his other ride, three years later, his mount fell at Valentine's.
Ciechanowski, who lived at East Garston, near Lambourn, was vice-president of the Amateur Jockeys' Association of Great Britain.
His wife, Paola de Janze, predeceased him, and he is survived by their son.
The advancing years appeared to have little effect on Ciechanowski, who continued to ride out several times a week for trainers such as Mick Channon, Noel Chance and Barry Hills until he was 84, arriving for work as early as 5.30am.
He last rode in a race (a charity event at Newbury) in 2005.
John Ciechanowski was born on October 31 1921, the son of a Polish diplomat who held a senior post at his country's embassy in Washington.
John was educated at Ampleforth, and found his enthusiasm for racing when he heard a radio broadcast of the 1935 Cheltenham Gold Cup, in which Golden Miller narrowly beat Thomond.
As he later recalled: "I thought, 'This is for me.' After that all I wanted to do was racing."
Having left school, he went to the family estate in Poland, spending the summer of 1939 riding and shooting.
Then the war intervened: "On September 1, at six o'clock in the morning, I was on my way to a little shoot I had organised. The local policeman bicycled up and asked me if I would mind not shooting that day, so that the local population would not be frightened.
"I did not understand. The policeman pointed to the sky, where aeroplanes drifted overhead. It was nothing unusual. Manoeuvres usually began after the end of the harvest.
"This time the planes were German."
Ciechanowski, still only 17, had the foresight to brand the family's horses and cattle, then volunteered to fight the Germans.
On being rejected because of his age he sought refuge at his grandmother's apartment in Warsaw.
Having persuaded the German embassy to grant him an exit visa, he made his way to Paris, where his mother had a flat.
His family, meanwhile, had gathered at Angers, and after the Occupation he joined them there before going on to Britain.
He later claimed that he spent his first three nights sleeping in a tent he erected next to the last fence at Haydock Park racecourse.
Ciechanowski served in tanks with the Polish Armoured Division, and took part in the Normandy landings, during which he was wounded.
By the time the war ended he was in the British sector of occupied Germany, where he came across one of the mares that he had branded at home six years earlier.
"We found one stud that had been run by the SS during the war, which had a lot of Italian bloodstock," he recalled.
"They had been swapping feed for horses with the Italians. The Germans kept racing going as a way of producing horses en masse for military purposes.
"The varied terrain of the long Russian front needed them."
Determined to make a career in racing, Ciechanowski spent three seasons as an apprentice to the trainer Tom Masson at Lewes, then a further season at the French national stud. He had a spell training in Brazil before taking a post at the Rothschilds' stud in France.
An attempt to run his own training operation at Chantilly was a failure, and Ciechanowski became a freelance rider and worked for The Sporting Life in Paris. When the paper's editor queried his petrol expenses Ciechanowski was furious, and resigned in protest.
Ciechanowski rode as an amateur jockey throughout Europe, and was champion of France. In 1971 he was assistant to the French trainer Maurice Zilber before leaving to work first with Tom Jones (1972-73) and then Vincent O'Brien (1973-76).
He worked with horses in Iran and Norway before, in 1980, being invited to train for the Maktoums, the ruling family in Dubai; he organised the first race meeting to take place in the Gulf state.
After two years he returned to England to train for the Maktoums at Lambourn. The stable turned out only 17 winners, however, and the operation was closed down after three years.
Ciechanowski twice rode in the Grand National. On L'Empereur, in the race won by Jay Trump in 1965, he was going well when "at Becher's the second time round Dave Dick's horse Kapeno fell, and nearly knocked me over.
I had nothing in my hands going to Valentine's, but then he started to pick up again and we finished sixth." In his other ride, three years later, his mount fell at Valentine's.
Ciechanowski, who lived at East Garston, near Lambourn, was vice-president of the Amateur Jockeys' Association of Great Britain.
His wife, Paola de Janze, predeceased him, and he is survived by their son.