Property billionaire and racehorse owner who won the Grand National three timesTrevor Hemmings, who has died aged 86, was a contradiction – an enigmatic billionaire who guarded his privacy fiercely, assisted by a trademark cloth cap, which he joked that he even wore for breakfast and would allow him to sit unnoticed in a pub. But he was an instantly recognisable figure on the racetrack, where his horses won prize after prize.
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Hemmings began as a bricklayer and the fortune he amassed from property enabled him to become a successful racehorse owner. He won the Grand National a joint record three times and provided the horse, High Kingdom, on which the Queen’s granddaughter Zara Tindall won a silver medal at the
London 2012 Olympics. His charity work and long-term support of the Princess Royal’s Carers Trust brought the award of a CVO in 2011.