I can't quite remember how I got to look after this fella, I wouldn't have expected to, as Kumbi was very big at 17hh and I'm on the short side of 5 foot, also Kumbi had a bit of a unpredictable personality often needing the tougher handling of one of the bigger lads.. but I'd always liked him and it had been said that we got on well together as we were both a bit on the crazy side.

I have been told that Kumbi means No Argument in Swahili, I'm happy to believe it because kumbi's sire was called No Argument. I wont mind being told different if anybody knows whether it's true or not.

Kumbi was a 17hh bay gelding by No Argument and out of a mare called Rusheen Point (Torbido). On his day he was a very useful chaser and won races at Haydock, Ludlow, Bangor and Cheltenham aswell as other places. Being a big fella he did take a lot of chances at his fences but saying that he could also jump them like any top class National Hunt horse. He just didn't want to show us especially when it came to taking on the fences at Aintree.

He ran very well in a few big races like, finishing 5th to Burrough Hill Lad in the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup at Newbury, to Righthand Man in the Coral Welsh Grand National at Chepstow and to Earls Brig in the Greenall Whitley Brewries Chase at Haydock and finished 4th to By The Way in the Whitbread Gold Cup at Sandown.

Kumbi ran in the Grand National but with no clear rounds, and he would have been a very good horse if had always run in more moderate races, rather than top class races..