Lifelong racing supporter Mike Edwards will be raising a glass to his former boss Chris Taylor ahead of this week’s November Meeting at Cheltenham.

The three-day meeting is the biggest of the National Hunt season so far and Edwards is one of many who is counting down the hours to the first race on Friday at 1.10pm.

But Edwards, who has been involved in the sport all his life, will take time out over the next day or so to remember Taylor, a former racehorse trainer based in Bishop’s Cleeve, who died in the summer at his home near Ross-on-Wye at the age of 90.

“He was a very good bloke to work for,” said Edwards. “He was autocratic, but very fair. He was a good chap, he gave me my big break.”

Edwards started working for him in the early 1960s after leaving Monkscroft School in Cheltenham at the age of 16.

“I didn’t come from a racing background,” said Edwards, who lives in Mickleton. “Before I left school I did a bit of work for Geoff Turk.

“He trained at the back of Whittington Manor and I used to get on my bike and ride from Hester’s Way, I used to muck out.”

That was enough for the young Edwards to know he wanted to get a full-time job in the racing industry.

“I wrote to a few trainers but Chris Taylor was the only one who came back to me,” continued Edwards. “He took a chance on me, I couldn’t ride.”

Taylor, an old Etonian who had been in the 10^th Royal Hussars, was based at Old Farm Stables in Station Road – it’s houses now – and Edwards remembers being impressed by the set-up.

“It was a very nice yard, there were about 35 boxes,” he said.” “I started out at the bottom, I was a stable lad/yardman but I worked my way up to head lad, I was there for 10-12 years.

“He used to let me ride the bigger horses as I was 6ft tall, I did a lot of travelling to race meetings, in later years he had about 30 horses.”

And some of those horses were pretty decent.

“He must have had about 20 winners a season, he knew what he was doing,” added Edwards.

“Before he moved to Cleeve he worked as private trainer for Tom Venn, who was one of the richest men in the East Midlands.”

That was where he first met Jenny Pitman (nee Harvey), who went on to train two Grand National winners and two Gold Cup winners, including Garrison Savannah in 1991.

“Jenny Pitman came to Cleeve and worked for him for a short period,” said Edwards.

And the young Pitman would surely have been impressed as Taylor started to make a name for himself.

“Wood Spirit was his best horse,” said Edwards. “He won two years in a row at the April meeting in Cheltenham. Pete Jones rode him, he was a cracking horse.

“Barnie Beatle was another good horse, he was the only one I led into the winner’s enclosure at Cheltenham.

“He was also the first horse I led into a winner’s enclosure, that was at Warwick.”

And Taylor also enjoyed success on the Flat.

“Clouded Lamp was a lovely mare,” continued Edwards. “She won as a two-year-old at Newmarket, he was quite successful.

“But just when everything was going really well he packed it in.

“He moved to Bourton-on-the-Hill and went into the veterinary side of things, he became a horse back specialist.

“He was very well-respected, looking after racehorses, eventers and showjumpers.”

Carl Hester, who won a team gold in the dressage at the London Olympics in 2012, was just one of many who spoke very highly of Taylor, and he certainly wasn't afraid to take on new challenges, because he also worked as an equestrian stunt double in films.

They included Anne of the Thousand Days in which Richard Burton starred and Elizabeth Taylor had a walk-on part.

He also worked with Sid James and Edwards said: “His dad Major Jeremy Taylor worked in the film business, he was a big influence on him.

“We saw quite a lot of his dad, he was a very charismatic chap, he drove around in a big sports car.

“He opened two pubs near here, the Inn For All Seasons at Little Barrington and the Winter’s Tale on Burford roundabout.”

Taylor Senior was a regular at many of the top race meetings and it was as a trainer that Edwards remembers his son best even though he describes him as “multi-talented”.

“When I first started with him, David Nicholson used to ride in quite a few races for him,” he said.

“Pete Jones and Keith Barnfield used to ride a lot of his horses and head lad Larry Corbett also rode a few, he used to ride the difficult horses.

“Stuart Mann, father of Nick Mann, was a conditional jockey, he was a good rider, and ex-jockeys Paddy Morrissey and Adrian Major used to ride out regularly.”

Morrissey and Major had plenty of experience, of course, and Taylor was happy to use jockeys with plenty of experience on the Flat.

“I remember leading out Davy Jones, Pete Jones’ dad, when he was about 60,” recalled Edwards. “Paddy Newson and Snowy Fawdon were also old jockeys.

“The best Flat horse we had apart from Crowded Lamp was Sotuta, who was owned by Frank Freeman, he was based at Spoonley Farm at the top of Cleeve Hill.

“Sotuta was a cracking horse, he won the Andy Capp Handicap at Redcar, they were great days.”