By Cornelius Lysaght BBC racing correspondent

Chesney Hawkes sung that he was the 'One and Only' but the 1980s teeny warbler can never have met Dandy Nicholls.

Because, when they made Nicholls, trainer of Gift Horse, the last-gasp winner of Glorious Goodwood's Stewards' Cup, they really did break the mould.

Nicholls lands Stewards' Cup

Now 12 stone-odd, the once journeyman jockey, a winner of the Stewards Cup' indeed on Soba (1982), is what's often termed a colourful character.

Short, solid and striking looking, with a shaven head, he looks like a diminutive but effective bouncer.

And to colourful add the words noisy, punchy, garrulous, wild, all of them with a Yorkshire accent.

Those of us caught up in the celebratory scenes sparked by Gift Horse, ridden with icy precision by Kieren Fallon, will, honestly, never forget them.

Fallon got a kiss; so did the horse; so did various startled bystanders. Even I got one, a smacker, on the cheek, luckily. Others were less fortunate.

If they want to send me a horse, I'll win the Derby for 'em Nicholls' message to the Queen and Sheikh Mohammed

Nicholls was drunk; no, not literally, but intoxicated by a splendid plan, beautifully executed.

Although Gift Horse was his trainer's second success in the ever-competitive three-quarter mile charge across the Sussex Downs, after Tayseer (2000), it was his umpteenth win in this type of sprint race.

So, I asked, what was it about these fast and furious dashes that so attracted him.

The reply was vintage Dandy.

Raising himself to his full 5ft 3ins, he declared: "The Queen, Sheikh Mohammed, Lord Fauntleroy don't send me their (well-bred) horses, so I have to make do with what folk do send me.

"It doesn't mean that I cannot do it with other types though, and I would say to any of 'em, if they want to send me a horse, I'll win the Derby for 'em."

But, I went on, sprints are such impossibly difficult races to win, so how do you do it?

"I'm a trier that loves a challenge," he replied, before adding with a mischievous grin aimed at the assembled media, "ask their missuses."

A few minutes earlier, the mood had not been so light when Gift Horse lashed out and nearly kicked Fallon in the paddock before the race.

Had he made contact, the jockey would have been hospitalised, and the horse withdrawn.

Asked about this, Nicholls insisted: "It would have been like Soba, and I would have ridden the bugger myself. But, no, Kieren is king of the planet so he was ok."

For many, it was Dandy Nicholls' three winners, all sprinters of course, that really made Goodwood glorious this year.