It's almost impossible to believe now but when Henry Cecil first started training 30 years ago, many believed he wouldn't last.

After his first 25 runners were all beaten, one Newmarket contemporary sniffed dismissively: "Couldn't train ivy up a wall." Not for the first time, the Newmarket whisperers got it badly wrong.

Tomorrow, Ramruma will be a long-odds-on favourite to give Cecil a sixth Irish classic success in the Kildangan Stud Irish Oaks, but even this pales into insignificance alongside his 22 British classic victories and 10 trainer's championships.

Mind you, the initial doubters could claim that hindsight is wonderful. At the time, Henry Richard Amherst Cecil must have seemed the a perfect example of the vague young man who in the days of empire would have been sent straight to "Injia", well away from the family business.

Born 10 minutes before his twin David in Aberdeen in 1943, Cecil was brought up in a privileged world. After his father had been killed in action in North Africa, his mother married the Royal trainer Cecil BoydRochfort.

On the retirement of his legendary stepfather, Cecil took over his stables but soon replaced another retiring legend in Sir Noel Murless at his present establishment, Warren Place.

The impression of privilege can only have been reinforced by the young man's personality. Even now, Cecil can give the impression of a slightly bemused patrician. His interest in colourful neck ties also hints at a slightly dandified figure.

Newmarket observers maintain that this is not some fiendishly convoluted disguise. Cecil is after all something of a patrician by upbringing and achievement, and he is possessed of real charm.

"A lot of trainers treat their staff like shit but Henry isn't like that. He has a great rapport with his people and genuinely likes them. Henry is one of these people who at a party can happily talk to 10 stable lads and then turn around and be just as at ease with the Aga Khan or the Queen," says one Newmarket insider.

What can be said is that a laidback exterior can sometimes deflect attention away from an intense competitive streak. Even more than that, the depth of the man can be gauged by his resilience. For a supposed dandy, Cecil can be rigidly tough.

He proved that when starting out on his career by deflecting the knockers until winning his first classic, the 1973 Irish 1,000 Guineas with Cloonagh.

He also survived the break-up of his first marriage to Noel Murless's daughter Julie. She was and is a remarkably capable and popular figure who took some staff and much goodwill when she started a training career of her own.

Cecil's subsequent marriage to Nathalie resulted in a clash with Sheikh Mohammed that would have broken most others who endured a public spat with racing's most powerful owner. The Sheikh felt Cecil's new wife was playing too great a role in the training of his horses and in 1995 removed his blue-blooded string from Warren Place.

WITH THE help of patrons like Prince Khaled Abdullah and Lord Howard de Walden, Cecil endured. So much so that only the neck Enrique was beaten by in this year's 2,000 Guineas has stopped him having a clean sweep in the British classics.

More evidence that Cecil is very much his own man comes from his appointment of Clare-born Kieren Fallon as his stable jockey. There can rarely have been a more unlikely combination, but under Cecil's tutelage, Fallon has progressed from hotheaded journeyman to champion jockey.

More than anything else though, Cecil's gift is for making his horses run faster than everybody else's. "What people forget is that Henry works his ass off," said his former rider, Steve Cauthen. There is also his all-consuming enthusiasm for racing and crucially a natural empathy with the horse.

"He has this feel and instinct for horses. It's great to watch him at work. He is not hard on his horses but he demands they pull their weight. However, he also knows when to lay off. When Oath disappointed him before the Irish Derby, he had no second thoughts about not running him," says the Newmarket correspondent of the Racing Post, Tom Goff.

An unparalleled current record among trainers is the ultimate justification for those instincts but daily 5 a.m. starts testify that Cecil is still as rawly ambitious as ever.

Away from the pressures of the racecourse and the somewhat goldfish bowl existence of Newmarket, Cecil maintains an immaculate rose garden at his home but the fascination with, and pressures of, the sport that has made him famous can be gauged by the 60 Marlboro Lights he draws on daily.

It's his dedication to getting it right that will help make Ramruma such a hot favourite tomorrow. Everyone has long since learned to expect nothing less.