Yorkshire mourned the loss of Peter Easterby earlier this week, as the 95 year old former trainer finally handed in his licence at the Pearly Gates, more than 70 years on from his first winner. He presided over a period of rich success for Yorkshire trainers, alongside brother Mick.

The Turf attracts people of all shapes, sizes and backgrounds, but Easterby was straight out of the mould of bluff Yorkshire stockmen. But whilst in his latter years, he was able to play up to the Yorkshire caricature, he was a shrewd judge of a horse and an even shrewder businessman.

Although best known for his National Hunt success, he enjoyed considerable success on the Flat, and was a man to respect in all the big handicaps, even if the stable did not attract the Middle Eastern wealth that drives the very top end of the bloodstock market.

Like so many successful handlers in the sport, Easterby was the son of a farmer who had ridden as an amateur, and his uncle, Walter Easterby also trained. Learning off them and Frank Hartigan, Easterby launched his own training career in 1950 at the tender age of 21. But there was no meteoric success. It was to be 3 years before he trained his first winner over jumps, a further 2 before his first flat success. Shamrock Star’s fourth in the Nunthorpe of 1960, announced to the racing world a trainer with an eye to a good hoss.

Goldhill won the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot in 1963, and revisited Ascot two years later to win the Kings Stand. Ascot success eluded him thereafter, but handicap success there was aplenty: the Lincoln in 1965 and ’73, Ayr Gold Cup in 1983, ’84 and 1990; the Portland in 1986.

He was a keen supporter of Ripon, although backing his horses here would not have made you rich. His record at the garden racecourse was less than at Thirsk, Carlisle or Redcar, only beating Pontefract.

The late sixties and seventies were a heyday for the Great Habton yard with the advent of a string of top flight jump horses, including Saucy Kit (Champion Hurdle 1967), Night Nurse (Champion Hurdle 1976, ’77) and Sea Pigeon (1980, ’81). The latter was a very versatile performer on the Flat too, adding the Chester Cup in 1977 and the following year, and the Ebor in 1979.

Winners continued to flow with Alverton in the Cheltenham Gold Cup of 1979, ridden by stable jockey, Jonjo O’Neill and Little Owl in 1981, under amateur Jim Wilson. He trained 13 festival winners overall.

But whilst he is known to racing folk as a canny, no-nonsense trainer, Easterby would have described himself first and foremost as a farmer and a family man. From humble beginnings running a 25 acre tenanted farm, he successfully acquired land extending to 3,000 acres, with a mixed arable and beef farm. Enough grassland at any rate to support his own Point-to-Point course at Sheriff Hutton, still used by the Yorkshire Area club meeting and the Middleton. His wider family are largely involved in racing, most recently grandson William riding between the flags, and Tim who took on the training licence. His wife, Marjorie, predeceased him in 2012

Retirement beckoned in 1995, when he handed over to son, Tim, affording him more time to pursue country activities, albeit never far from the racing game. He remains the only trainer to have trained over 1,000 winners under both flat and jump racing, largely in an era without the same volume of fixtures we have nowadays.

It feels like the end of an era, but it’s most certainly not the end of a dynasty.