A PHONE call early on Tuesday morning from Michael Carey alerted me to the fact that, after a long illness, Jimmy Walker had passed away.

A true journalist of the old school, Jimmy covered all the big meetings in Britain and Ireland but his love of the two Northern tracks was so encompassing that no matter what heights a trainer or jockey had hit in the past, they were no one until they had a winner at Downpatrick or Down Royal and Jimmy had the opportunity to interview them.