Obituary: Alan Potts - A journey from the pits to the parade ring

Alan Potts: mining expert and Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning owner of Sizing John

Luckily for Alan Potts, there was still half a dozen years to go before Arthur Scargill took on Margaret Thatcher in the most notorious industrial relations death match of the 1980s.

But before that year-long coal strike divided British society there was still an abundance of working mines in Britain and most of them were still spending money on machinery that they hoped would increase the productivity of their businesses.