Nick Townsend speaks to a young trainer with some very big boots to fill

A sense of grandeur, of majesty – in both senses of the word – can’t help but envelope you as you arrive at West Ilsley Stables, a name long associated with some of racing’s most esteemed individuals, human and equine.
Today the clattering of hooves you hear are those of Jack Channon’s string returning from their work. Yet, you are all too conscious that it was on these gallops that some of racing’s pre-eminent performers emerged under the charge of the maestro, four-time champion trainer Major Dick Hern.
It prompts an...