Racing Books

In his last Harriet Bean book, McCall Smith reveals that Harriet has twin Aunts who are detectives. With Smith's bent toward detective stories it is little wonder he wasted no time creating one for Harriet. That is how the book starts off.

The aunts have found that there is something wrong with the horseracing business and the races seem to be fixed in some way. They need more information in order to figure out how it is being done. It must be done by the jockeys considering the high level security around the horses. And Harriet is just the right size to pose as a jockey.

Harriet has her moments of doubt and dread, but in the end, she does solve the mystery. Readers will find Smith using his familiar style and ethics. He notes that cheating is a bad thing and that people should not do it. The book is recommended for readers from 7 to 12 years of age.

Short kept advices for modern boats with asymmetric spinnakers. Does not explain the underlying physics but provides a handy HowTo covering rigg and sails, trimming and handling in different conditions, race preparation and tactics. Boats used for demonstration: 470, Laser 4/5000, 49er.

Carefully layouted, easy to use as a reference because you find again what you read.

I find the works of Dick Francis quite to my liking. They are fairly slow to build, with great character development and a lot of story involved, rather than a lot of shoot-`em-up, bang-bang. I have nothing against the high-adrenaline thriller, it is just nice now and again to read these slower-paced works and enjoy a nice story, and the complex webs that Francis weaves around his characters. Nothing is ever quite as it seems, and you better believe you will eventually end up with a surprise or two staring you in the face. This foursome of tales is sure to please!

High Stakes: Steven Scott is a wealthy inventor who has taken to horse racing as a hobby. He doesn't know much about horses, but he does know about finances, so when he discovers that his horse trainer has been stealing large amounts of money from him, he fires the trainer. Not one to take such things lying down, his trainer (Jody Leeds) sets out to keep Steven's best jumper - a nice black horse named Energise - through the simple expedient of simply driving away with him. He has also given instructions to the driver to not stop for anything - even if that thing is Steven in the path of the truck. First attempt thwarted, Jody refuses to relent and takes Energise anyway.

As Steven digs further into the scam that Jody was running on him, he discovers it was not just he who was being hurt by this; apparently many of the small betting firms who worked at the horse races were being run out of business. Refusing to relent, Steven inevitably finds himself on the firing line. Can he find a way to stop the scam without ending up dead himself?

Smokescreen: Francis, in the Introduction to this book, tells the reader that he had recently been to South Africa when the idea to write this book came to him. Furthermore, once he decided his main character was going to be a celebrity - an actor - he decided to gain background by visiting the British film studios at Pinewood to see how movies are made. Apparently his wife used to work behind the scenes in the movie business, so they have a number of friends who are actors, giving him a good, solid understanding of the acting business.

All this preparation and knowledge paid off in a particularly solid book, where you really feel like you are there while reading the story. Edward Lincoln is a well-known actor who has just finished filming a movie called "Man in a Car" (or something similar) where the basic story is that he has been handcuffed in a car and left to die. After this particularly draining experience, he is looking forward to some time with his family, but when his godmother, Nerissa, calls he immediately goes to see her. Startled by her appearance - she had always been very robust - he discovers she is very ill with lymphoma and is probably not going to last very much longer. She asks him to go to South Africa and look into her horses there as they have been performing badly in the races; she wants to leave them to her nephew, but she doesn't want him to end up with duds. Link is happy to comply.

However, once he arrives in South Africa, the attempts on his life almost immediately begin and he is soon drawn into a desperate struggle to both understand the problem with Nerissa's horses, and to protect himself from harm.

Beautifully detailed descriptions of the African vistas visited by Link bring us into the book fully - Francis seems to be particularly good at this sort of thing. I have definitely enjoyed reading books by this author and I believe I'll look into getting a few more.

Rat Race: The Dick Francis stories are slower moving than modern mystery/thrillers, and I rather enjoy that. It's not a constant shoot-'em-up action and as a result there's more time to get to know the characters. In this book, Matt Shore has been hired on to replace an air taxi pilot who is leaving the country. It's just his good luck to have for his first major taxi job several people who appear to be at one another's throats, a terribly moody jockey and - from a stop along the way - one of the most famous jockeys in England. Things just go from bad to worse when, on the flight back he notices a problem with steering the plane and puts down to check it out - only to have the plane explode. Soon Matt finds himself in the middle of a complex web of schemes and secrets - with people who aren't afraid to kill to keep the schemes secret.

An excellent read - highly recommended!

Bonecrack: Neil Griffon grew up in the world of horse racing - his father owning a racing stable and all - but he had left his father's domineering shadow and gone his own way as soon as he could, and made a success of himself. However, when his father is injured in a serious accident and finds himself in hospital, Neil is left with no choice but to take over running the stable - at least until he can find someone else to do it in the interim. His plans of turning the stable over to someone more qualified are quickly kibashed, however, when he is abducted and told that he will be getting a new apprentice, whom he WILL allow to ride the most valuable racehorse in the most important race. If these things are not done, the stable WILL be destroyed. Now Neil must stay and run the stable to make sure that Alessandro Rivera, the son of mobster Enso Rivera, is kept somewhat mollified while still keeping the stable functional and doing his best to make sure everything is kept ready for the upcoming racing season.

This was my first Dick Francis book, and while I wouldn't exactly call it pulse-pounding exciting, it is a decent little book. It is fairly slow moving at time, but I don't really mind that, because it provides us with good character development and that's always a plus. So, I would recommend this for those who are fans of Dick Francis, books about horse racing, thrillers, etc.

I read this book years ago, finding it in my Middle School library. Even at the time, I found it utterly fascinating. Longrigg covers the history of horse racing around the world as far back as it's known to exist. He also covers different types of racing and competition on horseback as they are found in different cultures worldwide. From the beginning, this book hooks the reader's attention and keeps it moving all throughout. Along with the thorough history are beautiful illustrations such as photographs, black-and-white and color, of famous horses and people in racing, and also paintings and sketches depicting racing celebrities in pre-photographic times.

The author of this beautiful older history of yachting is a naval engineer and, as such, is focused on the development of the yacht as a vessel type rather than a social history of the sport. Phillips-Birt's ability to see and describe in layman's technical terms how racing and rating rules drove hull design, as well as his detailed knowledge of the British yachting scene prior to America's appearance on the world stage, make this book an essential complement to John Rousmaniere's "The Golden Pastime: A New History of Yachting" which was written from the social perspective of yachting in America in the Gilded Age to the end of America's hold on the Cup. The 2 books seem almost written to be read together and are both gloriously illustrated.

The best book I've read on the Donington GP of 1937-38. Well researched with excellent photographs of the events. Anyone who's interested in pre WWII racing will enjoy this book.

I had the pleasure of attending Dr. Carl Horner's reading when he signed his new novel at a major bookstore in Jacksonville, Florida. Very few authors have the capability to engage an audience the way he does. When he began to read and talk about his novel, there was this almost tangible connection between the author and the audience. He encouraged his guests to talk and ask questions. I mention this in case you ever have the opportunity to hear him. There are authors who are good writers and authors who are good speakers. Dr. Horner is both.
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Colby Fowler, the central character in A Hole in the Wind, is drawn into the sport of bicycle racing, just as Carl Horner was as a young man. In a newspaper article, Dr. Horner said the title of the novel speaks directly to his experiences. "When you have six people in front of you and three or four or six to the right and left of you, and a hundred behind you, it's like you're being pulled. It's like you're in a hole, like there's no wind all of a sudden." He calls this phenomenon a "tunnel-pulling effect."

For him, life delivers moments similar to that effect, moments Horner calls "the obverse of loneliness." He says such moments can come from nature, such as when you spot a deer in the yard, or from hearing a special song on the radio. Such a moment, he notes, is also "a hole in the wind."

The novel, says Horner, was "born out of been there, done that, saw all that-passion. Those memories keep talking to us."

Colby Fowler is a lonely boy who helps take care of his mother, a failed pianist drowning her sorrow in alcohol. As Colby works to fit into the hierarchy of his racing team, he confronts callousness and outright rejection from teammates. But when tragedy strikes a coach, Colby manages to triumph over the challenges life has dealt him. As Colby contemplates the loss of his coach, he muses to himself, "You can't keep making yourself believe that you're special--that horrible things happen to everyone else, not to you. Time might be your best friend, but it can also wash you away at a point when you're still too hungry to die--when you've got too many things left undone."

Like Holden Caulfield's character in the well-known classic The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the character Horner draws in A Hole in the Wind is an adolescent of precocious thought and deed.

Teens will be drawn to Colby Fowler because the loneliness he experiences and the challenges he faces speak to their own issues.One passage in particular will resound with students who confront the beginning of a new school year-"Fowler felt drained by the clamor of students pushing and shoving their way along the narrow balcony in front of Kelly's classroom.The noise, the thunder-bodies trampling over each other, yelling like no one could hear."

Horner's novel is a carefully crafted book written with a poetic bent to the prose. His central character is a youth who is mired in adversity, but one who finally makes peace with himself in the end. It's an uplifting story, and it's memorable, filtering into the consciousness the way a good book will often do even after the last page is turned.
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This review is based, in part, on a newspaper feature I wrote for the St. John's Sun (publish date 8-26-05).

This book, first published in 1955, was reprinted in 1968. As a native of the Bluegrass and a patron of Keeneland Race Course for a large majority of my life, I am particularly interested now in the striking photos that remind me of how things actually were in my younger days.

There is a chapter on the Keeneland Race Track and also on the racing of Trotting horses and on hunting horses. Information about the beautiful horse farms of Fayette and surrounding counties, including the splendid houses, is addressed both in pictures and richly descriptive text. There are as well many beautiful photographs of horses, famous and otherwise, including yearlings, stallions, and foals. Also covered is the running of the Kentucky Derby held in Lousiville, Kentucky. The chaper on Tradions and Legends is particularly interesting.

Anyone interested in the state of Kentucky, the Bluegrass Area, vintage Lexington, or just beautiful racehorses in general will be mesmerized with both the informative text and the gorgeous vintage photos.

Keeneland and The Trotting Track are still operative today and of course the Kentucky Derby is an annual tradition. The farms of Fayette and surrounding counties are mostly still in business and this area remains the Horse Capital; however, this book completely captures all of the beauty of a more gentile and less technological time in Kentucky's history.

A very informative and beautiful book reflecting the beauty and southern charm of this area and the sport of Kings as it was 50+ years ago. The book makes me smile and owning it makes me happy.

If you're a horse racing fan, don't miss the racetrack profiles, extensive tips on where to stay and how best to enjoy, and interviews which pair with history in HORSE RACING COAST TO COAST: THE TRAVELER'S GUIDE TO THE SPORT OF KINGS. This book's loaded with everything the horse race buff needs to know; from hotels and recommended eateries to trackside statistics. Unparalleled in its scope, it's a horse racing fan's travel 'bible'.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

In Horsefeathers' Mystery Scoop is boarding three race horses Jackson, Storm, and Melly. Scoop falls in love with Melly. Someone is trying to hurt the horses, one night Scoop finds one horse bleeding. Scoop finds her brother BC playing with a burnt stick and thinks he has been playing with matches. The end is very sad and I was surprised when I found out who was trying to hurt the horses.