Sports writer Russell Smith finds out a little too much about the racing world’s “odd couple”

To many they were horse racing’s “odd” couple.

Henrietta Knight, the former school teacher, and Terry Biddlecombe, the hell-raising ex-champion jump jockey who had survived alcoholism, fell in love and teamed up to plunder National Hunt’s top prizes from picturesque West Lockinge stables, near Wantage.

Famously, this included the Cheltenham Gold Cup three years running from 2002-4 with the brilliant Best Mate.

Now Knight has recorded the highs and devastating lows of their 20 years together in Not Enough Time. Those two decades came to an end in 2014 when Biddlecombe died after a long illness.

His final moments, told in moving detail by Knight, top and tail the book, and inevitably bring a great sense of sadness.

But in between there is happiness as Knight recalls the unforgettable times they shared after getting together after a chance meeting at the Malvern Horses Sales in 1993.

Having known these two great characters well, I could have got by without certain details of their first night together, such as the effects of a horsehair mattress. But then they say sex sells and, according to Knight, Biddlecombe lived for it.

It’s not the only risqué episode the former trainer relates, with bizarre stories of Biddlecombe’s naked rowing, while another time he encouraged his wife to pose topless in a poppy field while he took her picture.

Although essentially a human story, Knight recalls golden memories of Best Mate’s Cheltenham treble plus relating in tear-jerking fashion their superstar’s death at Exeter in 2005.

Sure to be popular with racing fans, who took the couple to their hearts, it remains to be seen if her tale of triumph and tragedy appeals to a wider audience.

Not Enough Time: My Life With Terry Biddlecombe, Head Of Zeus, £20. Knight will be at Wantage (Not Only) Betjeman Literary Festival on Tuesday. See wantagebetjeman.com for details.