LAST week, too late for more than a passing mention, Jimmy FitzGerald announced that he was to give up training and hand over to his son Tim, later this year.

For more than a quarter of a century, Jimmy has been an integral part of the Ryedale racing scene. Indeed it was in 1969 that he established himself at Norton Grange Farm and he did not have long to wait before sending out his first winner, Archer, at Market Rasen.

Jimmy, born in Tipperary, was a successful jump jockey before a bad fall ended his career in 1966. One of his finest achievements as a rider was to win the Scottish Grand National on Brasher in 1965 - the last time that race was run at the now-defunct Bogside.

Brasher then went on to finish second in the Whitbread Gold Cup to the redoubtable Arkle. It gave Jimmy real pleasure to return to Scotland as a trainer and capture the National, now run at Ayr, two years running, with Androma.

The first win was in 1984 and 12 months later Androma, after a 17-week lay-off, won a thrilling contest by half-a-length from Righthand Man.

Jimmy then attempted to complete the double, which had eluded him as a rider, and capture the Whitbread, the final big steeplechase of the season. Androma, carrying 1lb overweight, just failed by a neck to capture the prize.

Locally-based jockey Mark Dwyer rode Androma to both his Scottish National wins and was associated with the FitzGerald stable for many years. Little over one month before Androma's 1985 win at Ayr, both trainer and jockey experienced the highlight of their racing careers - victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Forgive'n'Forget had a fine Cheltenham Festival record before capturing the Gold Cup. He won the Coral Golden Hurdle Final in 1983 and finished second in the 'novices' Gold Cup', the Sun Alliance Chase, the following year. This triumph helped to put Jimmy FitzGerald in fourth place in the 1984-85 National Hunt Trainers table, four places ahead of his Ryedale rival Peter Easterby.

If Forgive'n'Forget gave Jimmy his greatest triumph, it also gave him his blackest hour three years later. Back at Cheltenham for the Gold Cup, Forgive'n'Forget jumped the fourth last fence full of running and looking the likely winner, but broke a hind leg. A tragic end to a great career.

Jimmy FitzGerald had many other triumphs in the jumping game, including wins in the Arkle Chase with Danish Flight and the Sun Alliance Chase with Canny Danny. On the flat, he had big-race victories in the Ebor Handicap, with Sapience, The Lincoln Handicap, with Evichstar, and two Cesarewitchs, with Kayudee and Trainglot.

In all, Jimmy trained 343 winners on the flat and was instrumental in furthering the early career of Kieren Fallon, now one of our top jockeys. Altogether, almost 1,200 winners were sent out from Norton Grange.

Tim FitzGerald has been assistant to his father for some years now, so is certainly experienced in the art of training racehorses. He completed the trainers' courses at the British Racing School some two years ago. Classmates at that time included Alan Berry, Sylvester Kirk and Jamie Osborne - all now well on the way up the training ranks. Tim will, no doubt, be looking forward to renewing rivalry on the racecourse.

Updated: 12:32 Thursday, February 07, 2002