Peter Easterby was a giant of the turf, a legendary figure who, from modest beginnings, became perhaps the finest dual-purpose trainer Britain has ever seen.

From his base at Great Habton, near Malton in North Yorkshire, Easterby trained the winners of 2,513 races in a 46-year career.

Renowned for not confusing his geese with swans, he was champion jumps trainer three times, and won five Champion Hurdles (including two each with Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon) and two Cheltenham Gold Cups.

The only trainer to win 1,000 races both on the Flat and over jumps, he had an uncanny ability to train anything on four legs. Sprinters and stayers, hurdlers and steeplechasers all came alike to him. Blessed with the beady, inquisitive eye of an experienced stockman, Easterby, who was also a highly successful farmer, possessed an instinct for horses and a touch of genius.

A straight-talking, no-frills Yorkshireman, he started out not with a silver spoon in his mouth, but with a muck-sack and pitchfork in his hand. He was born Miles Henry Easterby – known to everyone as Peter – at Knayton, near Thirsk, on August 5, 1929, 20 months before his brother Mick. Their father William was a tenant farmer and amateur rider.

He worked as a teenager for his uncle, the redoubtable trainer Walter Easterby, and also for Frank Hartigan.

“You got no money,” he'd recall, “you had to live on your wits. Frank Hartigan was a very bad-tempered man who'd kick you, hit you with a fork, anything. At nights I used to have to brush his suits, wash up, all sorts of jobs.

“He'd gone over the top a bit when I was there, but he'd been a great trainer. The main thing he taught me was something I knew already – how to work bloody hard!”

Easterby, who completed two years' National Service (“with the Royal Veterinary Corps at Melton Mowbray at 22s 6d a week”), returned to the family home at Habton Grange (“a house, 25 acres and a few boxes for a rent of £100 a year”) and started training. It was 1950 and he was 21.

He had only a handful of modest horses and made trips to Newmarket to try to recruit more at knockdown prices, cycling seven miles to Malton and hitching a lift – or, more often than not, a variety of lifts – to Suffolk.

Few could have imagined a golden future for Easterby, who supplemented his meagre income by standing an unfashionable stallion, and by buying and selling hunters and point-to-pointers.

It was three years before he saddled his first winner, Double Rose in a £102 novice hurdle at Market Rasen in 1953, ridden by Jack Boddy, and another two before he scored on the Flat with King's Coup, a 25-1 shot, at Thirsk. An occasional amateur rider, he himself rode one of his early winners, Ohms Law, to two successes over hurdles.

King's Coup developed into his first good horse, followed by Shamrock Star, who finished fourth in the Nunthorpe in 1960. Stirling won the valuable Gillette Hurdle at Newcastle in 1962 and his trainer, already showing himself to be shrewd, skilled and streetwise, was on his way.

Goldhill won the Windsor Castle Stakes in 1963 and returned to Ascot to clinch the King's Stand Stakes two years later. They remained Easterby's only two Royal Ascot victories and he never even had a runner in a Classic, whereas his brother Mick won the 1,000 Guineas with Mrs McArdy.

By the mid-1960s he was flying high. Old Tom (1965) won the Lincoln, which he landed again in 1973 with Bronze Hill, and his stars on the Flat around this time included Pisces, Maystreak, Pretty Form, Most Secret, Artaxerxes and Gold Form.

Saucy Kit, bought cheaply and moderate on the level, won the Champion Hurdle in 1967, the first of Easterby's five victories in the race.

During the first half of his career he was primarily a Flat trainer, and he won only three races in the entire 1973-74 jumps season. But then two great and popular champions, Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon, won the Champion Hurdle twice each and tilted the balance of his operation towards jumpers.

Despite being diagnosed with a heart murmur early in his career, Night Nurse ran up a sequence of ten straight wins and triumphed in the Champion Hurdle in 1976 and 1977. In 1981 he came within a length and a half of becoming the first horse to complete the Champion Hurdle-Gold Cup double. His conqueror, remarkably, was one of his stablemates, Little Owl.

Arguably the greatest of all hurdlers, Night Nurse had an exhilarating front-running style with a tenacious will to win that marked him out during that golden age of hurdling.

Sea Pigeon, who had finished seventh in the Derby for Jeremy Tree and Jock Whitney before being sold to Pat Muldoon, spent the early part of his second career with Gordon Richards but the owner transferred his horses to Habton Grange in the autumn of 1976.

Versatile and durable, Sea Pigeon won his first Champion Hurdle at the age of ten in 1980 (having twice finished second in the race) under Jonjo O'Neill, and followed up the following year under a daring ride from John Francome.

On the Flat the US-bred won two Chester Cups, three Vaux Gold Tankards at Redcar and, most memorably, the 1979 Ebor under a weight-carrying record of 10st, conceding 42lb to the runner-up.

Easterby always maintained that Sea Pigeon, who had a blistering turn of foot and needed to be produced late, should have won three Champion Hurdles.

“It was the second time he was runner-up,” he often recalled of the 1979 renewal. “If Pat Muldoon hadn't come into the ring, he would have won. 'Mind you don't come too late', was the last thing he said to Jonjo. It was enough to sway Jonjo, who ended up coming too early.” The outcome was a three-quarter-length defeat behind Monksfield.

Sea Pigeon's second victory in the Champion Hurdle contributed to a magnificent Cheltenham Festival for the trainer in 1981, as two days later he achieved a 1-2 in the Gold Cup with Little Owl and Night Nurse.

Alverton, a prolific winner on the Flat, had won the Arkle at Cheltenham for him in 1978 and triumphed in the Gold Cup the following year, but 16 days later suffered a fatal fall when favourite for the Grand National.

Champion jumps trainer for three consecutive seasons from 1978-79, Easterby had a wealth of talent at his disposal, and his other Cheltenham Festival winners were Town Ship (1977 Stayers’ Hurdle), King Weasel (1980 Cathcart Chase), Clayside and Ryeman (both Arkle winners) and Jobroke (County Hurdle).

He also had major handicap winners Easby Abbey, Within The Law, Father Delaney and No Bombs; high-class hurdlers Major Thompson, Prominent King, Starfen, Angelo Salvini, Sula Bula and Nohalmdun; and Gold Cup runner-up Cybrandian.

His Flat horses, though less glamorous, continued to produce a steady stream of victories. Sonnen Gold's Gimcrack Stakes victory in 1979 helped him to his highest ever position, ninth, in the Flat trainers' championship, and contributed to his best Flat score of 74 wins.

He won three Ayr Gold Cups with Polly's Brother, Able Albert and Final Shot, other major handicaps with Pablond, Felipe Toro, Young Benz and St Ninian, and Listed races with Bollin Knight, Jamarj and Norton Challenger.

The trainer, who did particularly well with cheap horses, was loyal to his jockeys. Jimmy Etherington had a lengthy spell as the stable's No.1 rider on the Flat, while Mark Birch, who succeeded him, spent 25 years at Habton Grange.

Over jumps, strong relationships were established with Paddy Broderick (Night Nurse's principal rider over hurdles), Ron Barry, Jonjo O'Neill, Ian Watkinson, Lorcan Wyer, Alan Brown and Russ Garritty.

Easterby tended to make light of his vast achievements and was a master not only of training but of simplifying what was required to be a success.

“Have a go, that's what I'd tell 'em; see if you're good enough,” he said when once asked what advice he'd give to any aspiring trainer.

“For one thing, you've got to be a survivor, and for another, you've got to be able to recognise a racehorse. Not when he's galloping – it's too bloody late then – but when he's walking round a sales ring. Limbs, that's the main thing. Unsound 'osses are no use to anybody.”

He brought his career to a close in January 1996, handing over to his son Tim, who had ridden successfully as an amateur rider and assisted him for well over a decade.

He had trained the winners of 2,512 races in Britain – 1,511 on the Flat and 1,001 over jumps – plus Night Nurse's Sweeps Hurdle in Ireland.

Easterby, who owned numerous farms and thousands of acres in North Yorkshire, slipped into the assistant's role, maintaining his work ethic and his hands-on routine well past his 80th birthday, never being far from his beloved horses.

The family tradition of sending out plenty of winners, big and small, has been maintained by Tim, who has enjoyed successes from the Cheltenham Festival to top sprints, and whose Group 1 wins include the 2002 St Leger with Bollin Eric.

Easterby's wife Marjorie, who came from a racing family and died in 2012, was an immense support to him behind the scenes and they had three children, Carolyn, Tim and Leila. Carolyn ran a catering company and Leila was the first wife of Richard Fahey, with whom she has a son and a daughter.

Tim and his wife Sarah have three children – William, Emily and Thomas – so the future of the Easterby dynasty looks secure.

Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon, who both lived to a ripe old age, are buried side by side in a small paddock adjacent to Easterby's house. Their graves are surrounded by beech trees and accompanied by a mounted inscribed plaque, which records their extraordinary achievements and poignantly points out that both were “Legends in their Lifetime”.

The same could be said of Peter Easterby, the man who guided them, trained them, coached them and nurtured them. A man who built an empire from next to nothing and etched an indelible mark on British racing.

Peter Easterby CV

• Full name: Miles Henry Easterby
• Born: Knayton, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, August 5, 1929
• Family: Father: William Easterby (farmer & amateur rider). Uncle: Walter Easterby (trainer). Brother: Mick Easterby. Wife: Marjorie. Children: Carolyn, Tim, Leila
• Assistant to: Walter Easterby, Frank Hartigan
• Stables: Habton Grange, Great Habton, near Malton, North Yorkshire 1950-96
• First winner: Double Rose, Market Rasen, March 7, 1953
• First Flat winner: King's Coup, Thirsk, April 15, 1955
• First big-race winner: King's Coup (1957, 1958 & 1959 Thirsk Hunt Cup, 1959 Rose of York Handicap)
• Champion Hurdle winners: Saucy Kit (1967), Night Nurse (1976, 1977), Sea Pigeon (1980, 1981)
• Cheltenham Gold Cup winners: Alverton (1979), Little Owl (1981)
• Lloyds Bank (Stayers') Hurdle winner: Town Ship (1977)
• Other Cheltenham Festival winners: Alverton (1978 Arkle Chase), King Weasel (1980 Cathcart Chase), Clayside (1981 Arkle Chase), Ryeman (1983 Arkle Chase), Jobroke (1986 County Hurdle)
• Group-class winners on Flat: Goldhill (1965 King's Stand Stakes), Sonnen Gold (1979 Gimcrack Stakes)
• Night Nurse's other big-race wins: 1975 Fighting Fifth Hurdle, Sweeps Hurdle, 1976 Scottish Champion Hurdle, Welsh Champion Hurdle, 1977 Templegate (Aintree) Hurdle (dead-heat), Welsh Champion Hurdle, 1979 Sean Graham Trophy (Mildmay Novices') Chase, Buchanan Whisky Gold Cup Chase
• Sea Pigeon's other big-race wins: 1977 Scottish Champion Hurdle, Chester Cup, Vaux Gold Tankard, 1978 Scottish Champion Hurdle, Chester Cup, Vaux Breweries' Gold Tankard, Fighting Fifth Hurdle, 1979 Ebor Handicap, 1980 Welsh Champion Hurdle, Vaux Breweries' Gold Tankard, Fighting Fifth Hurdle
• Gillette Hurdle Cup winner: Stirling (1962)
• Schweppes Gold Trophy winner: Within The Law (1979)
• Royal Doulton Hurdle winner: No Bombs (1980)
• Tingle Creek Chase winner: Easby Abbey (1975)
• Massey-Ferguson Gold Cup winners: Easby Abbey (1975), Father Delaney (1979)
• Other big-race wins over jumps: Prominent King (1979 Ascot Long-Distance Hurdle), Father Delaney (1980 Tote Pattern Chase), Pay Related (1982 H&T Walker Goddess Chase), Sula Bula (1984 Oteley Hurdle), Cybrandian (1984 H&T Walker Goddess Chase), Nohalmdun (1986 Christmas Hurdle, 1990 Aintree Chase), Young Benz (1989 Top Novices' Hurdle, 1991 Perrier Jouet (Maghull) Novices' Chase)
• Other big-handicap winners on Flat: Shamrock Star (1960 Champion Sprint Handicap), Old Tom (1965 Lincoln Handicap), Bronze Hill (1973 Lincoln Handicap), Pablond (1975 Vaux Gold Tankard), Polly's Brother (1983 Ayr Gold Cup), Able Albert (1984 Ayr Gold Cup), Felipe Toro (1986 Portland Handicap), Young Benz (1988 November Handicap), Final Shot (1990 Ayr Gold Cup), St Ninian (1991 Newbury Spring Cup, Jubilee Handicap)
• Other big-race wins on Flat: Goldhill (1963 Windsor Castle Stakes), Able Albert (1983 City of York Stakes), Jamarj (1988 Sceptre Stakes), Norton Challenger (1991 City of York Stakes, 1992 John of Gaunt Stakes)
• Grand National favourite: Alverton (13-2 in 1979; fell)
• Notable 1-2s: 1979 Schweppes Gold Trophy (Within The Law, Major Thompson), 1981 Cheltenham Gold Cup (Little Owl, Night Nurse)
• Last winner & runner: Balhernoch, Sedgefield, January 24, 1996
• Five winners on one card: Wetherby, October 15, 1980
• Cheltenham Festival wins: 13
• Royal Ascot wins: 2 (both with Goldhill)
• Champion jumps trainer: 3 times: 1978-79, 1979-80, 1980-81
• Highest position in Flat trainers' table: 9th in 1979
• Most wins in a jumps season: 75 in 1979-80
• Most wins in a Flat season: 74 in 1979
• Total wins: 2,513 (Flat 1,511, jumps 1,002 including 1 in Ireland)

Compiled by John Randall

Source: Racing Post.