Henry Cecil's comeback crowned with Derby chance Bullet Train

If Henry Cecil wins the Derby with Bullet Train on Saturday, the media will descend on the greatest British trainer of the last 30 years and one of the most endearing catchphrases in sport may well get another airing on Flat racing's most famous stage. Someone will ask about Bullet Train's racing qualities and how his season might unfold. Cecil will tilt his head and fix his gaze. "I don't know," he'll say. "What do you think?" Those four words capture the appeal of Henry Cecil, and the sense of vulnerable genius that has earned him such deep and enduring affection from racegoers and punters. They followed his horses through the 80s and 90s with almost unfailing success, and then suffered with him, as a series of personal and professional crises sent his career into what appeared to be a hopeless tailspin. Some might date the start of Cecil's problems to the morning in 1995 when a convoy of horseboxes arrived at Warren Place to remove all of Sheikh Mohammed's horses, yet he won eight British Classics over the next five seasons. But several long-standing owner-breeders, most notably Lord Howard de Walden, died over the same period, reducing the stable's strength bit by bit. Cecil's second marriage was disintegrating, and in 2001 he lost his twin brother, David, to cancer. At his lowest ebb, in 2005, Cecil trained 12 winners, and finished 97th in the trainers' championship. A few months later, he, too, was diagnosed with stomach cancer, for which he is still receiving treatment. By this point there were barely 50 horses in his yard. What you did last month counts for little in the results-driven business of Flat racing, never mind last year or last decade. Win or lose at Epsom this week – and Cecil has a strong hand in the Oaks on Friday – his recovery to sit third in the championship going into the Derby meeting has been one of the greatest in any sport. One of Cecil's many fascinating traits has always been the sense that he is not entirely sure why he has enjoyed such success. When a talent is so natural, it can be difficult to appreciate that not everyone is similarly blessed, or to escape the fear that one day it might stop working quite so well. The lesson of the last five years, though, is that there must be immense self-belief and determination behind the nervous manner, because otherwise Cecil would have surely given up. "It's fantastic for Henry that he's come right back up through the ranks and back to where he belongs," Tom Queally, who will ride Bullet Train, said last week. "He's a genius. It's like he's at one with the horses, he knows them inside out and upside down. "He knows that you never stop learning about horses, that they can surprise you day in, day out. If you've got 100 cars, you're not going to start them all with the same key. You have to find the key for every one of them in turn, and a great trainer like Henry will tend to find the key that bit faster, because he knows every trick of the trade. "He's a great man to ride for as well. It's a privilege for me to be there, you only have to look back at years gone by to see some of the great jockeys who have ridden for him like Lester Piggott, Steve Cauthen and Pat Eddery. But he doesn't give many instructions, he realises that a race will unfold as it does. He concentrates on getting the horses to the races in tip-top condition and that makes my job a whole lot easier." Eddery, a trainer himself for the last five years, remains in awe of Cecil, who provided one of his three Epsom Oaks winners, Lady Carla, as well as dozens more big-race successes. "He's got a wonderful gift," Eddery says. "It's always been with him and it will never leave him. It's a flair for horses, and what he does with fillies in particular is just incredible. "He's an amazing human being really. He went through a bad time when he lost his brother and went through a divorce, but he just got on with it and I admire him so much for that. I'm so happy for him now that he's training good horses again, but he's always been a great trainer. "He has such a great understanding of horses. I've tried to do the things he does, but I haven't been as successful. Put it this way, I would love to be half the trainer that Henry is." Bullet Train is a 10-1 chance for the Derby, a live each-way contender in an open year rather than a hot favourite like Reference Point in 1987 or Slip Anchor in 1985 (who, like Bullet Train, won the Lingfield Derby Trial on the way to Epsom). But even if the punters' heads tell them to follow Aidan O'Brien or Sir Michael Stoute on Saturday, their hearts will ride with Henry.