Versatile East Lavant trainer Steve Woodman is preparing for the flat meeting at Brighton on Sunday, while also gearing up for the jump season.

He said: "I might run Common Consent and Little Tumbler, providing the going there is still on the fast side at Brighton.

"But I'm not too keen on the all-weather tracks so won't be having flat runners once the season ends in November."

With the jump season getting into its stride, Steve is expecting a strong showing from four-year--old Ice Crystal.

He said: "He won his last two races at Kempton Park and Fontwell, he stays two-and-three-quarter miles and is best on softish ground. He is a good jumper and could be a decent horse."

Woodman's enthusiasm is infectious, but his ambitions are realistic as he keeps alive a racing tradition at his Parker's Barn stables in East Lavant, a hamlet near Chichester.

The set-up is no Lambourn or Newmarket. There are just 20 boxes and no plans to build more.

Woodman said: "Fifteen or 16 horses is quite enough for us, we have reliable local staff and we use gallops at the bottom of the hill on the Goodwood Estate so the set-up is pretty compact."

He has trained at Parker's Barn for 15 years with modest success for a group of owners, some of whom trained with his father Syd in the Sixties and Seventies.

Woodman is keen to maintain the tradition. He said: "When dad died in 1986 he had held a licence for 25 years.

"He had been head lad to the legendary Captain Ryan Price who trained here after the War.

"When Ryan moved to Findon dad stayed on with some of his horses and Syd Dale, who also became a successful trainer, was head lad at Findon."

After Price closed the East Lavant operation, Syd Woodman was able to buy Parker's Barn. His two boys, John and Steve, were into ponies in a big way.

John eventually became a professional jockey, but Steve, on account of his weight, remained an amateur.

Steve said: "I had a few point-to-point rides, but show jumping was my thing as a teenager. "I had a super pony, Pablo, and we went to Wembley with him and had quite a lot of success in the South of England."

In his early days as owner of Parker's Barn, Syd Woodman ran a livery yard and trained the crack team of point-to-point horses owned by Pulborough Rolls Royce dealer Wally Harwood.

Steve said: "There was never a weekend went by in the Spring when we didn't have a couple of winners. Wally's son, Guy, who later became a leading trainer, rode them, and I particularly remember Spinsters Folly and Domahoney in the Harwood colours."

After a while Syd took out a full training licence and Steve, having bunked school at the age of 14, learned the trainer's craft by becoming his assistant before taking over. Steve said: "My first winner as a trainer was Have Faith at Kempton Park in 1986.

"That was particularly satisfying as we had trained her mother, Credo's Daughter, to win some good races."

Steve's wife Sally does not work in the yard but "looks after the owners" according to her husband and deals with the office work. Son James is keener on golf than racing, while daughter Charlotte, 17, is the singer with the pop group Hair Of The Dog.

John Woodman did well as a jump jockey until a crashing fall on a spare ride at Worcester in the early Seventies ended his career.

He was lucky to emerge alive but his neck injury was so bad that he is forced to wear a neck brace to this day. John is never seen in public without a smile on his face, although he is in constant discomfort or worse.

John is unable to do much in the way of physical work but his wife Penny is a key member of the training operation and daughter Rebecca is an amateur rider working at Angmering for Lady Herries.