- This topic has 19 replies, 18 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 3 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
The Sea Pigeon Story
by Bill Curling – this was the first horse racing book that I ever bought in 1982 and to this day he still remains my favourite racehorse of all time.
The Horses of My Life
by Richard Dunwoody – a fascinating insight from his perspective on the horses that he will be forever linked with. A career sadly cut too short by injury.
Lester: The Autobiography of Lester Piggott
– riding his first winner at the age of 12, a 46 yr riding career with his last British ride being on his 59th birthday – a living legend simple as.
Vincent O’Brien’s Great Horses
by Ivor Herber & Jacqueline O’Brien – from 3 time Gold Cup winner Cottage Rake to El Gran Senor, surely the greatest and most versatile trainer of all time.
Lester Piggot: The Pictorial Biography
by Julian Wilson – it is a good read as it is not just a picture book as the title may lead you to believe.
Fun Was My Living by Quintin Gilbey, The History of Steeplechasing by Michael Seth-Smith, Flat Racing (1939, Seeley Service), Sods I Have Cut On the Turf, The History of the Derby Stakes, The Faber Book of the Turf, Talking Horses by Jeffery Bernard, A Bloody Good Winner by Dave Nevison, Eclipse by Nicholas Clee, Turf Accounts, The Little Book of the Turf, The Turf by J Hislop.
Most modern racing biographies are desperate: badly written and poorly edited.
Fiction:
Dick Francis
by a mile. In his case the masses are right – they bought, and still buy, his books as if books are going out of fashion. Brilliant plots, wonderful characters, everything just perfect.
Non-Fiction:
I have to admit to hero worship.Hyperion by Clive Graham
is great because it is all about the facts, the figures, the pictures and the history of the horse closest to my heart.
Fred by Alan Lee
is a very good book, but no book will come close explaining the life of Fred Winter. He was an incomparable mix of modesty, determination, ability, strength, honesty and integrity. He would have risen to the top in whatever enivironment he found himself; we were lucky he chose horseracing. All that stuff about “good guys never finish first” does not take account of an exceptional man like Fred Winter.
But if I had to choose one book to give to a novice, or indeed to an expert, in the world of horseracing it would be:
“McIvanney On Horseracing”
. This is a compilation of about seventy newspaper articles he wrote between 1966 and 1997. Now, Hugh McIlvanney can write beautifully. But what he wrote in these pieces explains the essence of all that is horseracing, not just in those few decades, but throughout its history. Here are racing politics, great horses, owners, trainers, stable lads, gamblers, officials and of course many great racing events. But his describing of those events places into your mind all the emotions and motivations of the horseracing world.
Hugh McIvanney is still the only sportswriter to be voted Journalist of the Year. As Peter O’Sullivan said: “… his fellow professionals accept him for what he is – superior.”
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.