The year was, as stated, 1987 and I was Editor of the Racing & Football Outlook.
We had had a relaunch, a TV advertising campaign (I hired Ray "Robbie Box - Big Deal" Brooks to do the voiceover and he was brilliant) and we had an edgy "Off The Bit" gossip column I let the Deputy Editor run.
He had it on impeccable authority (an eye withess) that Stephenson and stable jockey Ridley Lamb had had a stand-up row at the yard about whether to take advantage of The Thinker's soon-to-rise handicap mark by running him in the Grand National before he was reassessed for his Cheltenham Gold Cup win (for which I had tipped him ante-post at 33/1 btw as while more talented I always believed odds-on Forgive N Forget was a lousy jumper who was as likely to root any fence as jump it cleanly).
So we ran the story.
My older northern correspondent was on the phone the day of publication, patronisingly telling me the story was wrong and advising me to print a retraction and apology.
I reminded him he wasn't there, my source was, he was being paid by my paper, not Stephenson, he worked for me, not the other way round, and I'd make my own decisions, thanks.
I also added Stephenson was welcome to phone, me but he'd get no change out of me,
He did and he didn't.
I refused to reveal my source but said I knew what had happened and instead of mouthing off he should crack on and sue if he thought he had a case but I was a Law graduate as well as a journalist and I was telling him straight he hadn't.
He's been told I was a kid so it wasn't the conversation he was expecting.
So at the end he called me a bastard and said I needed to be careful crossing roads as I might just get hit by a bus.
I did whimsically keep an eye out for a double decker marked Bishop Auckland that was clearly off its route as I crossed Farringdon Road in London the next week or two, but none materialised.
I take as I find and in my personal opinion, an opinion no one is obliged to share, the bloke was a tool and a bully.
True story.
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