CHRISTMAS READING

After the strangest year that has whizzed past in a blur, that time has arrived when we look towards restocking book shelves, or in some cases the kindle, which fits the purpose for most books that have recently come into print, apart from those you would consider collectors items or to be part of a long built set of volumes.

For those of a certain age, we feel more at home reading the writings of the good forum posts than most of what the modern press serve to us. Save its excellent database, the Racing Post now has nothing to offer on the horse racing front, with Gerald Delamere now even seemingly shown the exit door as part of a desperate cost cutting excercise with the year ending December 2019 showing another alarming drop in profits - this before Covid kicked in.

The Racing Forum, less busy than its hectic rival under the Betfair banner, has a thread running on the demise of the hardcopy version of the Timeform annuals. In one heartfelt post, a contributor summed up the significance of this development:

"Stop publishing the Annuals, and Timeform moves from a category of its own, to the category containing Racing Post Ratings, BHA Ratings, IFHA Ratings and a myriad of similar simple number-cruncher outfits. The difference between its old category and its new one is that the former is all about the horse, and the latter is all about the gambling. It is a loss of status in the horse racing world. It’s all downhill from here."

The above observations are a perfect summing up of how the sport is losing its soul and becoming more of a cold form of gambling, something that fits to the tune of the emerging generations who see football as the dominant betting sport and who will have zero interest or respect in horse racing as a sport along with its rich in depth history that knocks other sports for six, and who would be the groups targeted by this obtuse team competition coming our way next summer, God forbid.

They would certainly have no appreciation of class, hard copy racing books such as those containing illustrations of the late Richard Stone Reeves art. On several occasions down the years, something has got in the way of my purchasing a Patrick Robinson/ Richard Stone Reeves book called Decade Of Champions, published in 1980. 

I was first aware of this book's publication when it was advertised and previewed in the Pacemaker magazines. Just like when you'd browse through the album covers in 1970's record shops when there would be one that you'd mentally short list to leave with on every visit only to be drawn to another that would win your vote, Decade Of Champions was the publication continually left on the sidelines.

It was not until the past few weeks that I finally purchased a copy, forty years on from its release. Paying in excess of fifty quid for a second hand publication that, given racing's decline in status, will not increase in value, may seem poor value but having sampled the delights of what is an ideal dip in and out publication, the regret is not obtaining a copy earlier.

The book's opening setting is on New Years Eve 1969, with Charles Englehard hosting a gathering in his Florida home and proposing a toast to his Ballydoyle based champion juvenile, Nijinsky, dreaming of what could unfold during 1970.  This was a decade that is a strong contender to be the best and most exciting of any in the history of the sport. European racing boasted some magnificent animals but even so most genuine racing fans over here could not have failed to be aware of what an incredible run of years horse racing was also enjoying across the pond.

But the publication, while understandably having an American bias, attributes due respect to what was occurring in these realms, even if some of the categories certain horses are placed in raises an eyebrow - so too some inclusions such as Crash Course.

' World - Beaters' is split into parts one and two, with the first part covering Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Affirmed, and Nijinsky, with Brigadier Gerard and Mill Reef put into the second part alongside Forego, Exceller and Troy - curious groupings.

Only five pages cover jumping, which is in a chapter that includes stayers on the flat, thus you now have the even odder mix of Sagaro, Bruni, Crash Course, Properantes, Red Rum, and L'Escargot.

But at the end of the day these nit picky jabs are dwarfed by the central theme of the book which are those wonderful representations of Stone - Reeves artwork. The large weighty publication is required to allow these paintings to fill the eye.

There is a taking side-on of Affirmed holding off Spectacular Bid in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, while the Triple Crown winner features in another cracking illustration later in the book when Alydar is covered in 'Beloved Losers', the pair rounding the home turn in the Belmont Stakes.

Perhaps the most eye filling portrayal is the full page plate of Spectacular Bid with Bill Shoemaker up. The legendary rider is also involved in a painting depicting the runners at the start of the 1978 Epsom Derby. Shoemaker is in the background aboard the eventual runner up Hawaiian Sound, with the soon to be winner, Shirley Heights, the dominant theme. You suspect that as there are only two other animals in sight, that the positions of the animals may have been added for the purposes of the painting.

Anyway, for racing fans that appreciate the sport has a true 'soul', this would be a must for the collection and I will now go after the other Stone Reeves racing books, with Classic Lines next on the list though right now all copies advertised are from stateside sellers with none available to purchase from the UK.

Two other publications, small, lightweight mini books that can be purchased second hand but contain some delightful black and white photographs are 'Tom Dreaper and His Horses ' and ' Vincent O'Brien The National Hunt Years'.  Both are by the same author Bryony Fuller, and are ideal dip in and outs over the coffee table. My copy of the Dreaper book was purchased second hand off a racecourse book stall and may have come from the late, esteemed Richard Baerlein's collection as tucked away inside is a letter from Letherby and Christopher confirming the writer on the guest list for a lunch party before racing in the Queens Anne Building at Ascot on 3rd March 1992.

Of the more recent publications that can be purchased newly, the painting is hardly dry on Barry Geraghty's career for his book to appear. In fact, I waited until this year to read ' Henry Cecil - Trainer of Genius', as enough time has now gone by since his passing to sit back and have a truly reflective look back at his career. I don't normally read Brough Scott books due to his persistent, one sided championing of the Maktoums involvement in the sport when he was C4's anchor man but he is undoubtedly a fantastic writer and the book will not disappoint any racing fan. In fact, it is in the public domain that Cecil himself fell out with the writer because he felt certain details of his story were told in confidence and should not have been included. Scott apparently had to balance this wish against what he felt was his duty to reveal to the public in his role as a journalist.

And for those who want to unclutter their minds of all things racing for a while, I'm halfway through Shane Warne's book which is warts and all and a damn good read too, while there are some absorbing true story, impressively researched publications around covering the Cold War era, and the involvements of M15, MI6, the CIA, and the KGB. 

Finally, not too forget that those full of soul old Timeform Annuals that you find continually on the second hand market. There may just be a small resurgence in demand for them while there are still enough ageing racing fans alive who retain their marbles.

With a Christmas theme -  a classy cover version of a song originally released in the year of Nijinsky's juvenile campaign.