Gerry Enright wants to keep his set-up low-key. The Lewes trainer was thrust into the spotlight when Gran Clicquot won at 100-1 at Brighton last month.

But Enright, 12 years a trainer, has no ambitions to run an 80-horse stable or saddle 50 winners a year at The Oaks Stables.

The 50-year-old and his wife Midge, who met when they worked for handler Josh Gifford at Findon in the Seventies, are happy with their 18-box yard at the Old Lewes Racecourse.

They admit to making a fair living, without luxury trimmings, and are supported by loyal owners who know true horse people when they see them.

Gran Clicquot's owner Freddie Gray said: "Gerry and Midge worked very hard and the horses get 100 per cent attention."

Without the distraction of children to bring up and educate, the Enrights devote their lives to the horses in the stable.

Enright said: "The only distractions are two Jack Russell terriers, Tuesday and Pips, who go everywhere with me, on the tractor, in the pub and in the lorry.

"We have our own exclusive gallops, a six-furlong straight and one-and-a-half-mile one, both on grass. I'm not keen on artificial surfaces for training and 18 boxes are quite enough for us.

"We have 14 horses with three or four more to come in and I would not want a big string."

Just two full-time staff are augmented on Tuesdays and weekends by friends who ride out in the mornings and these include jockey Jamie Goldstein's younger brother, Mark, who hopes to ride as an amateur when he leaves school.

Teacher Stephen Finlay, who used to be on the staff of Epsom trainer John Sutcliffe in the Seventies, is another work/rider at The Oaks Stables.

In addition to Gray, Welsh stud owner Chris Wall and Len Fuller are long-term loyal owners.

Enright began as a jockey, riding more than 250 winners while hunting and showjumping in Ireland.

He said: "My family lived in County Limerick and I was hunting from a very young age and rode show jumpers for the fabled horseman P. P. Hogan."

Just before his 14th birthday, he joined Lewes trainer Gordon Smythe as an apprentice.

Such a thing would never be allowed now but the apprenticeship tradition was strong and better organised than it is today.

He spent five years at Lewes having 300 rides and 17 winners.

Enright said: "Early in my time with Mr Smythe, Charlottetown won the Derby and I remember the successful Newmarket trainer Michael Jarvis as one of the two head lads, he was in charge of Charlottetown at home."

His first public appearance was at Brighton, but he put on weight in his late teens and moved to County Durham to try his luck as a jump jockey.

He said: "I joined the one and only W. A. Stephenson, because my brother John was one of his jockeys along with Paddy Broderick, who won the Champion Hurdle on Night Nurse."

Perversely the only winners he rode for Stephenson were on the flat at Teesside and Musselburgh and after 18 months joined Gifford in 1972. It was before the days of the celebrated Bob Champion and Enright was a contemporary of jockey Doug Barrott who was killed in a fall at Newcastle when riding in the Whitbread Gold Cup. Enright said: "I had the opportunity to manage a stable for one of Josh's owners, Peter Hopkins, at Bolney in the mid-Eighties.

"I continued to ride for a year or two but then I was offered the lease of the Bolney Stable and I began training full time in 1986."

Married by then to Midge, who had worked as a secretary for Gifford, the Enrights moved to Lewes in 1989 and have never regretted the change.

Soon Badgers Glory will arrive from Gray. Enright said: "This is a very nice young horse and certainly one to look out for."

Current runners include Windsor Winner, Faraway John, at Epsom today and Carrick Lady in the three-year old seller at Yarmouth next Tuesday.