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I’m relatively new to horse racing (been watching for around 6 months) and I would love to learn more about the history of horse racing (particularly NH) but I just don’t know where to start.
Any suggestions of books or publications that would be useful?
-Jade
Time flies like a banana, flies are like arrows...fruit?.. wait, no....
Hi
If you live anywhere near Newmarket then there is a great library in the British horse racing museum which has the best stock of history books you can imagine.
It depends how far you want to go back, most of the history books covering pre WW1 focus on flat racing.
After that regards national Hunt, the focus is really around the grand national which was was the pre eminent race up until around the 1950s when the Cheltenham gold cup started to rival it.
This opinion is based on my research work about 20 years ago when I did my university dissertation on horse racing history during the industrial revolution though so there may be some good history books that have come out since.
Best advice is probably Google around.
Any amount of books you could try but a few that I’ve got that might be worth a read. All out of print but should be possible to pick up second hand copies on Ebay or similar:
Racecourses On The Flat pub. 1989 by John Tyrrel
Chasing Around Britain pub. 1990 by John Tyrrel
A Long time Gone by Chris Pitt pub. 1996 (subsequently updated) (History of closed courses from 1900)
The Scots And The Turf pub. 2010 (updated since) by Alan Yuill Walker
Going Down To the Beaten (Tales of the Grand National) pub. 2011 by Chris PittAnything by Chris Pitt is worth a read and Jim Beavis has written a number of racecourses histories all worth a read if you can get hold of them. Both these men are masters at background research.
Hi Jade, and welcome to the forum
Horseracing certainly has plenty of reading material out there. Most books tend to focus on specific topics such as biographies or autobiographies, or specific horses or races etc. Books that give a good wider historical picture are more thin on the ground, and I’d also be interested to know of any that people have to recommend.
The Daily Telegraph Chronicle of Horseracing (edited by Norman Barrett, 1995) gives a good chronological overview of the development of the sport in the UK from its very beginnings, making liberal use of their archive of news articles.
There are also quite a few “guide to horseracing” and “encyclopedia of horseracing” books out there which give a good overview of the sport and will touch upon some historical aspects. One that I like in particular is The Channel Four Book of Horseracing (Sean Magee, 1995). Timeform have also published some nice books with a historical perspective such as Favourite Racehorses (1997). I too have read some books by Chris Pitt and agree with Robnorth’s recommendation of him.
I’m glad to be on here Marlingford! Its nice to find a space for racing discussion that isn’t a sparse comment section on YouTube, or whatever you find on Twitter.
Thank you all for your helpful recommendations and suggestions (haven’t I been treated
)-Jade
Time flies like a banana, flies are like arrows...fruit?.. wait, no....
I would recommend “The Flat” by Roger Mortimer and the Encyclopedia of Flat Racing, although old, they are both excellent. They might be obtainable from Abe Books; also the numerous and now discontinued Timeform Annuals are great for researching the past. There are a number of blogs, Facebook pages online too. My group Fine Thoroughbreds on Facebook has lots of information and images on horseracing history and breeding.
Jade, I’d also recommend John Pinfold’s books on Aintree: ‘Gallant Sport’, ‘Aintree: The History Of The Racecourse’ & ‘An Aintree Dynasty’ all available on the Book Depositry. There’s also my half-done website (work is continuing!): https://www.grandnationalultimatehistory.com/
One I own that fits your profile is ‘A Racing Companion’, an anthology that includes over a hundred small essays on varied topics from past centuries, up to the time of publication.
Published by W H Smith in 1992, edited by Lord Oaksey and Bob Rodney, 470+ pages of material.
I suspect this may be quite hard to find – to help the ISBN is 1 85291 117 4
St the very least, it will introduce you to numerous writers on racing history. There’s a full list of the original sources at the rear of the book.
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