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Horse racing: the sport of Kings, Queens, rogues and thieves, equine superstars and some fine writing


HORSE RACING


With the Cheltenham Festival only a couple of weeks away, what better time to dip into The Daily Telegraph Book of Horse Racing, which promises to relive some of racing’s greatest moments through the passion and authority of some real thoroughbreds from the Telegraph stable down the years.
Subtitled Kings, Queens & Four-Legged Athletes, this 384-page anthology just published by Aurum Press draws on the fine writings of John Oaksey,  Brough Scott, J.A. McGrath, Marcus Armytage, Peter Scott and Paul Hayward, plus the anonymous Hotspurs and Marlboroughs who have been the Telegraph’s resident tipsters and commentators.  There are contributions, too, from jockeys Tony McCoy and Frankie Dettori.
Often dubbed ‘The Sport of Kings’, horse racing embraces every level of society, with room for Queens, Lords and Ladies and a fair few knaves and cheats, but also for the serious student of form, the working man looking for entertainment and the thrill of a punt, plus the housewife fondly imagined by many a Fleet Street editor to be armed every year with 50p to stake on whichever equine athlete Lester Piggott was teamed with in the Derby.
From the small change risked in the office Grand National sweepstake to the multi-million pound turnover generated by the betting and breeding industries, horse racing has something for everything and Telegraph sports books editor Martin Smith has done his best to capture the flavour of the sport from the big occasions of Royal Ascot and the Derby meeting at Epsom to the unique atmosphere of the Cheltenham Festival with its traditional Irish party feel and the homeliness of the humbler courses that provide the daily bread and butter. 
If the names of Red Rum, Best Mate, Shergar, Arkle, Desert Orchid and Nijinsky, or Richards, Winter, Piggott, Francome, Dettori and McCoy are not already familiar, then Kings, Queens and Four-Legged Athletes will ensure they become so. 


Buy Kings, Queens & Four-Legged Athletes: The Daily Telegraph Book of Horse Racing direct from Amazon.


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