A titan of the game is laid low

Mike Bass is likely to wake up today to find that his right leg has been amputated below the knee and that he narrowly escaped death. The last thing the venerable trainer will remember was feeling rather off-colour with an apparent stomach bug a few days ago.This is a shocking situation, and for a man who has spent most of his life fretting about the state of health of his horses' legs it carries a strange irony.