Death of Valerie Lewis, wife of Best Mate’s owner
“She had been ill since May and tragically passed away at lunchtime,” said Best Mate’s trainer Henrietta Knight.
“She was incredibly brave all of the way through and had a lot of chemotherapy and treatment and outwardly showed to nobody that anything was wrong. She was present at the Peterborough Chase and at Aintree when Impek won and was always very cheerful.
“Jim and Valerie have been great friends of ours and wherever Jim went Valerie went - they were an inseparable pair. They were made for each other and were together as children.
“Valerie was always smiling and had a wonderful sense of humour. She was so supportive to Jim in everything he did and everybody in the yard loved her.
“She was a really buoyant, loveable person who never had a bad word to say about anybody and was a mother-like figure who looked after everybody.
“She wasn’t particularly a horse person, but she really entered into the spirit of it and got really excited by everything and she was always there - you could always depend on her.”
Knight added that Lewis still intends to attend Cheltenham tomorrow to scatter Best Mate’s ashes behind the winning post in a short ceremony at 11am.
