Menin Muggeridge was down but not out when he handed in his trainer's licence and sold his Lambourn property two years ago.

Muggeridge said the cost of an impending divorce left him with no alternative.

But the 38-year-old has proved a survivor and is poised to resume his career within a stone's throw of his birthplace at Crabbett Park, Crawley Down.

After Menin and his wife Teri split, he left his daughters Jane and Demi with their mother in England and moved to Spain, where he rode work at a racetrack in Malaga.

He said: "When I returned to the UK, I worked as a labourer before getting a job riding out for trainer Richard Hannon and Toby Balding.

"Then, quite by chance, I met up again with a lovely girl, Sarah Vincent, whom I knew when she kept her three-day eventers near to Richard Hannon's yard at Collingbourne Ducis."

The meeting was a turning point for the pair, who now live together.

Her father Robert Vincent offered him the opportunity to train on his 220-acre farm at Crawley Down.

Muggeridge said: "Sarah had retired from eventing and the 15 boxes were empty and needed occupants.

"There is plenty of space for grass gallops and a great deal of woodland, which always helps to keep horses relaxed and calm."

Muggeridge's licence application is being processed, but Oakfield Stables has been inspected and passed by The Jockey Club and, with a set of starting stalls expected any day, there should be no obstacles to the application.

He got involved in the sport through his late father Frank, who had been a successful trainer from the defunct Lewes Racecourse.

Frank, a popular character in the sport, bought a pub when he retired and it was there his son met Norwegian racehorse owner Kurt Eng.

Muggeridge said: "Mr Eng raced mainly in Denmark and he offered me a job as stable jockey.

"I rode 50 or more winners in Scandinavia, flat and jumping, before I got too heavy for their range of handicap weights."

Aged 23, he returned to a job as claiming jockey with Mercy Rimell in Worcestershire.

He said: "I was just getting going when Mrs Rimell decided to retire.

"I moved south to the Lambourn area and rode for Gay Kindersley and my brother Tim, who was training at the time."

Muggeridge, fighting a losing battle against his weight, took out a licence to train for the first time in 1990.

He said: "It was always going to be a struggle, but I had some loyal owners and several winners until domestic problems got the better of us and I had no alternative but to pack it in."

Having revived his career, he wants to train flat and jumping and, with the quiet rural surroundings of Oakfield Stables, Muggeridge is ideally placed to take on horses jaded from the wide open spaces of Newmarket and other training centres.

He said: "One day, perhaps, I will put in an artificial surface gallop, but we're only 20 minutes away from Lingfield Park which has the best all-weather surface in England and it is cheaper to pay the gallop fees than to do it ourselves."

There are five horses in the yard, including a couple of two-year-olds and a former point-to-pointer who will go chasing.

Muggeridge and Sarah are doing all the work and riding out themselves as five horses do not warrant hiring staff.

But with the prospect of orders to go to the sales and buy horses out of training, plus a plan to market syndicates, the couple will soon be looking for stable staff to back up the operation.

Muggeridge is a chip off the old block and, with any luck, it will not be long before he is following in Frank's footsteps.