Rosemary Lomax who trained race horses at Baydon became Britain’s first woman trainer, married England cricketer Ian Lomax and was mother-in-law to Formula 1 world champion James Hunt.

Many big names from the world of racing are expected to attend a thanksgiving service for her life at St Michael’s Church in Aldbourne at 2.30pm today.

Ironically Mrs Lomax, 81, died on June 17, the day of the 2010 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot which one of her horses, Precipice Wood ridden by Jimmy Lindley, won in 1970, having won the King George V Stakes the previous year.

She was the first woman trainer to send out a winner at Royal Ascot.

Mrs Lomax was a fine horsewoman and came second in her class at Olympia.

She was born Rosemary Ransom and her father trained horses and was a huntsman so horses were central to her life. She was taught to ride at the age of three by her mother.

At eight she would ride her pony Snuffy across fields from her home near RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire to attend school.

She rode with the Belvoir Hunt before going to Lawnside school in Malvern but always claimed she learned more about literacy and numeracy from studying form books and the Racing Calendar.

After finishing school she trained at a secretarial college. Her first job was at Lambourn, riding out and working for trainer Ronald Bennett and doing part time secretarial work for other trainers.

She was a keen point-to-point rider and won more than 40 races in the Fifties. One of the horses she rode, Limber Cup, went on to win the 1956 Cheltenham Gold Cup.

In 1953 she married England cricketer Ian Lomax, who was a farmer and trainer at Baydon. Although he held the licence he concentrated on hunting and cricket while she ran the yard.

When women were finally allowed to become trainers she took out a licence in her own name and continued to train until the early 1980’s.

After retiring from training she kept horses with Harry Dunlop whom she had encouraged at the start of his career and she was part of a syndicate buying and selling young horses up until her death.

Mr and Mrs Lomax had two sons and one daughter, Sarah, who was previously married to racing driver James Hunt until his untimely death at the age of 46 in 1993.

Rosemary and Ian Lomax were divorced in the early 1970s and he died in 1995.