Leading racehorse owner John Hales has died at the age of 85.
Hales, who made his money through the Golden Bear Toys company he co-founded in 1979, which went on to produce products from major children’s shows such as Teletubbies, Basil Brush, Thomas the Tank Engine and In The Night Garden, owned some champions of the jumps game.
Perhaps the best of them all was one of his first, the grey One Man, trained by the late Gordon Richards.
He won two King George VI Chases and reduced Hales to tears when, after several failures in the Gold Cup at Cheltenham, he dropped in trip to win the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 1998.
Hales also won the Grand National with Neptune Collonges and secured further Champion…