Josh Gifford, one of racing's best known and most loved figures, died in the early hours of this morning at the age of 70.
Gifford was intrinsically linked to the Grand National after the exploits of Aldaniti and Bob Champion in 1981.
Aldaniti was an incredibly hard horse to keep sound and Champion had only recently recovered from cancer, but the pair powered to victory and their exploits were immortalised in the film 'Champions'.
Gifford had been treated in hospital for a severe case of septicaemia and had only recently returned home.
His son, Nick, who had taken over as his father's successor at Findon, in West Sussex, said: "I'm afraid he passed away in the early hours. He'd been back home for about three weeks, but he took a turn for the worse yesterday evening. By the early hours he was in a really bad way and in the end it was a heart attack."
Champion said he was indebted to his former boss, labelling him "a great man".
Champion and Aldaniti were awarded the BBC's Sports Personality Team of the Year title in their National year.
But Gifford was far more than just a one-horse man, and before he turned his hand to training he was one of the best jockeys of his era and was crowned champion on four occasions.
He had four Cheltenham Festival successes in the saddle and finished second in the 1967 Grand National on Honey End behind the legendary 100-1 winner Foinavon.
He retired from the saddle before he turned 30 to start a training career that saw him win most of the major races on the calendar, although his biggest regret was that he was never champion trainer. In all he trained 1,587 winners before he handed over his licence to his son in 2003.
