Taking risks is Best way to realise racing dream

That would translate to the dual Group One-winning colt, who cost a mere 20,000gn and has rapidly propelled Best several rungs up the training hierarchy, being downed by the one that frustratingly got away and is now trained by James Fanshawe.

Numbers game: Best wants to eventually train 150 horses

First and third respectively in the Golden Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot, they are once again leading contenders for the most valuable sprint run in Europe, worth £400,000.

Best recalled: 'I tried to buy Sir Gerry at the Keeneland Sales when he was sold as a yearling. He wasn't that big but a really nice little horse and I loved him. But he was $75,000 and, at the time, I didn't have anyone to pay that.

'When I realised who he was I thought, "Oh God, I nearly bought him". If it had been a year further on I would have got him because I had a little more buying power. He was one that got away.'

Precious little else has slipped though his fingers since Best began training in 1997 and, two years later, took out a Flat licence initially to fill in alongside the jumpers for the 46-year-old point-to-point trainer.

The aim is to have 150 horses in the yard, where currently 50 are trained on the brow of the North Downs of Kent close to Maidstone.

On the Flat, Best, with his Group Ones plus successes at the last two Royal Ascots and a near-miss with Rising Cross behind Alexandrova in the 2006 Oaks, has already achieved more than any other Flat trainer ever has with gallops in the garden of England.

Passing trade was never a possibility when Best bought the derelict farm at the end of the remote Scragged Oak Road, but results have made sure plenty have taken notice as ambition was driven by necessity.

Out of the nine jumpers he initially scraped together to pass the licence regulations, only three were capable of racing.

'I was in a situation where I had to win to survive. I've seen a lot of people who have started off with maybe 30 horses and they think they are a trainer before they've even started.

'I'm not frightened to take risks and put my neck on the line. If I think that's worth a try then I'll try to do it.'

Best, who had Kingsgate Native beaten a head when a 66-1 debutant in last year's Windsor Castle Stakes, proved that point again when Flashmans Papers landed this year's race at 100-1, with stablemate Mullionmileanhour in third.

Both now head for Glorious Goodwood's Molecomb Stakes. He also tried the unconventional when successfully pitching Kingsgate Native into last year's Group One Nunthorpe Stakes and then finishing second against his elders in the Prix de l'Abbaye.

Not seen again until finishing 10th in the King's Stand, he shrugged off fears that he may have been merely a bully in the primary school playground by later that week landing the Golden Jubilee under new jockey Seb Sanders.

Best said: 'I was concerned he was a four-year-old in two-year-old clothes. He was so mature in every way and the weight-for-age allowance he received in the Nunthorpe and Abbaye was a huge advantage.

'I was disappointed after the King's Stand but everything that could have gone wrong did. Straight afterwards, I said that if he is OK we should still have a crack at the Golden Jubilee.'

Friday's rematch is another leg of the Global Sprint Challenge, a series Best believes Kingsgate Native could tackle.

But those decisions will be made by the Cheveley Park Stud after they bought the colt's breeding rights from owner John Mayne.

A win on Friday, the third of his career at the highest level, will probably make that eventuality less likely.