This book surveys the practice of horse racing from antiquity to the modern period, and in this way offers a selective global history. Unlike previous histories of horse racing, which generally make claims about the exclusiveness of modern sport and therefore diminish the importance of premodern physical contests, the contributors to this book approach racing as a deep history of diachronically comparable practices, discourses, and perceptions centered around the competitive staging of equine speed. In order to compare horse racing cultures from completely different epochs and regions, the authors respond to a series of core issues which serve as structural comparative parameters. These key issues include the spatial and architectural framework of races; their organization; victory prizes; symbolic representations of victories and victors; and the social range and identities of the participants. The evidence of these competitions is interpreted in its distinct historical contexts and with regard to specific cultural conditions that shaped the respective relationship between owners, riders, and horses on the global racetracks of pre-modernity and modernity. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of the History of Sport.

Just as football evolved with the introduction of the forward pass and basketball with the development of the jump shot, so too was handicapping forever changed by the use of speed figures--and it all started with Andrew Beyer's Picking Winners. This edition features a new foreword in which the author discusses the changes that have swept the sport since the book's original publication. Picking Winners remains a classic in the field of thoroughbred racing.

Red Rum's classic win in the 1977 Grand National is the stuff of sporting legend. Red himself became a national treasure, and his charismatic trainer - the redoubtable Ginger McCain - became a sporting hero. While the public adored Ginger, there were those who sniped that he was a one-horse trainer. All that changed 27 years later when, in a thrilling race, Ginger won his fourth National with Amberleigh House, equalling the record of Fred Rimmer. Once again Ginger had taken the sporting world by storm. In the 70s, the popularity of Red Rum and Ginger almost single-handedly saved the great race when there were plans afoot to turn the track into a housing estate. Ginger himself is a remarkable individual - charming, forthright, not afraid to speak his mind and a hugely entertaining raconteur. This is his story, at times funny, sad, exciting and always captivating, told in his own inimitable style.

The world of Thoroughbred horse racing is much more than the glitz-and-glamour Saturday races shown on TV. From Sunday through Friday, there are a myriad of horses who run, not for million dollar purses, but in the smaller claiming races that keep horse-racing alive and financially viable. On these same days, there are the bettors, owners, trainers and jockeys who form the backbone of horse-racing with their less-than-glamorous livelihood. This volume presents a non-fiction insider's look at today's sport of Thoroughbred racing from a day-to-day, behind-the-scenes vantage point. Divided into three sections, it discusses the racing, breeding and jockeying which is the reality of Thoroughbred racing. From trainers and jockeys to the editor of the Illinois Racing News, men and women well versed in the sport provide firsthand insight and experience regarding the actualities of Thoroughbred racing. Selected racing records and an extensive glossary of horse racing terms are also included.

As the woman who trained the great Best Mate to win three consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cups, no one could be better qualified than Henrietta Knight to discover what makes today's top jumps trainers succeed.

From eccentric, outspoken Yorkshireman Mick Easterby, to elegant, aristocratic Venetia Williams, from Irish wizard, Willie Mullins, to perfectionist champion trainer, Paul Nicholls and young pretender, Dan Skelton, here is a dazzling cast of extraordinary characters, all with their quirks and foibles, but with one single-minded ambition – finding first-class horses and training them to win big races.

Henrietta shares their dramatic journeys, methods and secrets of working in a tough, competitive industry. For the trainers, every win reignites the thrill of the sport and a craving for success that never dies. Their stories are fascinating, each one illustrated with unique photographs from private albums.

This study of a unique social world probes beneath the thrill and spectacle of horse racing into the lives of the "honest boys," the "gyps," the "manipulators," the "stoops," and the "Chalk eaters"--the constituents of race track society and the players of the racing game. With scientific precision and journalistic vigor, Scott describes the everyday activities--the objectives and strategies--of those whose lives are organized around track proceedings and who compete with chance and one another.

The players in the racing game range from track owners to stable boys, from law enforcers to lawbreakers, and from casual sportsmen to pathologically addicted gamblers. Considering the self-interests, the normative and operational codes, and the interactional relationships among the major types and subtypes of participants, the author defines the components of strategic movement within the framework of rules and resources to show how a player's relations to the "means of production" governs his behavior.

The fruitful application of sociological theory and method to an unusually interesting social context makes this particularly useful still for courses in social problems and the sociology of organizations and of leisure.

A thrilling collection of 200 photographs from the high-octane, glamourous world of flat racing, from the Irish Derby and the Irish Guineas at The Curragh, to the many local race meets, and reaching internationally to the highlights in the racing calendar and as far afield as Melbourne and Saudi Arabia. The book contains an exciting mix of the horses, the big wins, the big events, alongside significant wins for smaller trainers/owners/riders from 2011-2021. Some pages cover key photographs that capture significant people, special moments or are simply just great shots.

The Encyclopedia of British Horse Racing offers an innovative approach to one of Britain's oldest sports. While it considers the traditional themes of gambling and breeding, and contains biographies of human personalities and equine stars, it also devotes significant space to neglected areas. Entries include:

• social, economic and political forces that have influenced racing
• controversial historical and current issues
• legal and illegal gambling, and racing finance
• the British impact on world horseracing
• history and heritage of horseracing
• links between horse racing and the arts, media and technology
• human and equine biographies
• venues associated with racing
• horseracing websites

The Encyclopedia of British Horse Racing provides a unique source of information and will be of great interest to sports historians as well as all those whose work or leisure brings them into the world of racing.

The Encyclopedia of British Horse Racing offers an innovative approach to one of Britain's oldest sports. While it considers the traditional themes of gambling and breeding, and contains biographies of human personalities and equine stars, it also devotes significant space to neglected areas. Entries include:

• social, economic and political forces that have influenced racing
• controversial historical and current issues
• legal and illegal gambling, and racing finance
• the British impact on world horseracing
• history and heritage of horseracing
• links between horse racing and the arts, media and technology
• human and equine biographies
• venues associated with racing
• horseracing websites

The Encyclopedia of British Horse Racing provides a unique source of information and will be of great interest to sports historians as well as all those whose work or leisure brings them into the world of racing.

If you enjoyed The Racing Post Quiz Book by Mart Matthews, published in 2019, you are sure to appreciate this follow-up to the hugely popular first volume. The author has delved deep into the archives of the horseracing world to come up with another 1,000 questions on one of the nation s favourite sports, sure to challenge every fan. Try these questions for size: which Classic has been won this century by a capital city, a poet, a country and a cricketer? Which surname has cropped up twice among Derby-winning jockeys since the war? And which King George VI Chase winner sounds optimistic concerning a fish, but pessimistic in regard to a dog? Put your horseracing knowledge to the test again and see if you can come out on top. This is the perfect gift for all horseracing fans from anoraks to armchair fans alike it really does have something for everyone.

Oliver Lewis was champion jockey of the Kentucky Derby in 1875 with a winning race time of two minutes and 37 seconds. Jockey Willie Simms won in 1896, bringing his horse in at two minutes and seven seconds. James Winkfield was the winning jockey in both 1901 and 1902 with winning race times of two minutes and seven seconds and two minutes and eight seconds, respectively. Each of these men possessed the skill and power necessary to spur a horse to glorious victory. All are members of the small, select group of Derby-winning jockeys who were African Americans. The stakes were high: Black jockeys who won a race in the late 1700s and 1800s sometimes won freedom from slavery as well. This work examines the presence of black jockeys in the Kentucky Derby, from the first instance of slaves working as stable hands and tending their masters horses to the first black jockey to win the prestigious Kentucky Derby in 1875 and the continued participation of black jockeys in the Kentucky Derby. Black owners and trainers in the Kentucky Derby are also discussed. Three appendices list black winning jockeys, black trainers and black owners of Kentucky Derby horses.

This volume studies the formative period of racing between 1790 and 1914. This was a time when, despite the opposition of a respectable minority, attendance at horse races, betting on horses, or reading about racing increasingly became central leisure activities of much of British society. The author challenges many of our preconceptions about racing. He shows the importance of racing and betting to many of the middle classes in Victorian Britain; the very early commercialisation of the sport; and the limited power of the Jockey Club before the late 1860s. He explores the value of racing to the working classes, the gentry and aristocracy, tracing the sport's development in an age of technological change and the growth of the popular press.

This book constitutes the first full volume dedicated to an academic analysis of horseracing in British cinema. Through comprehensive contextual histories of film production and reception, together with detailed textual analysis, this book explores the aesthetic and emotive power of the enduringly popular horseracing genre, its ideologically-inflected landscape and the ways in which horse owners and riders, bookmakers and punters have been represented on British screen. The films discussed span from the 1890s to the present day and include silent shorts, quota quickies and big-budget biopics. A work of social and film history, The British Horseracing Film demonstrates how the so-called "sport of kings" functions as an accessible institutional structure through which to explore cinematic discussions about the British nation-but also, and equally, national approaches to British cinema.

The true story of three men and their dreams for a racehorse – seabiscuit – that symbolised a pivotal moment in American history as modern America was born out of the crucible of the Depression and the dustbowl, as the twentieth centuries greatest nation found the courage to bet on itself to win against the odds.

In 1936 the habits of 19th-century America were finally consigned to history just as Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind was published. In their place, modern America was born. But what defined this new era? Nothing more than the story of Seabiscuit, a stunted colt with asymmetrical knees that had for two years been hacked around no-good race tracks which led to permanent leg damage. Yet by 1937 Seabiscuit could draw crowds of 60,000 and had more newspaper column inches devoted to him than Mussolini, Hitler or Roosevelt, his popularity peaking during his appearances at the Santa Anita Handicap. America had gone to the races for the first time since the Depression and fallen in love with a misshapen colt of great character. Now it wanted a winner. Seabiscuit is also the story of three men: Tom Smith, a former Wild West Showman was the trainer; Red Pollard, abandoned by his poverty stricken family at a race track became the rider; and Charles Howard, a pioneer car manufacturer in San Francisco in the 1920s was the owner and financier. These three combined to create the legend of Seabiscuit and epitomise a dream for the emerging new America.

Belle Brezing made a major career move when she stepped off the streets of Lexington, Kentucky, and into Jennie Hill's bawdy house -- an upscale brothel run out of a former residence of Mary Todd Lincoln. At nineteen, Brezing was already infamous as a youth steeped in death, sex, drugs, and scandal. But it was in Miss Hill's "respectable" establishment that she began to acquire the skills, manners, and business contacts that allowed her to ascend to power and influence as an internationally known madam. In this revealing book, Maryjean Wall offers a tantalizing true story of vice and power in the Gilded Age South, as told through the life and times of the notorious Miss Belle. After years on the streets and working for Hill, Belle Brezing borrowed enough money to set up her own establishment -- her wealth and fame growing alongside the booming popularity of horse racing. Soon, her houses were known internationally, and powerful patrons from the industrial cities of the Northeast courted her in the lavish parlors of her gilt-and-mirror mansion. Secrecy was a moral code in the sequestered demimonde of prostitution in Victorian America, so little has been written about the Southern madam credited with inspiring the character Belle Watling in Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind. Following Brezing from her birth amid the ruins of the Civil War to the height of her scarlet fame and beyond, Wall uses her story to explore a wider world of sex, business, politics, and power. The result is a scintillating tale that is as enthralling as any fiction.

Betting on Horse Racing For Dummies is packed with information that teaches you the ins and outs of the racetrack. You'll learn how to improve your odds, avoid common betting mistakes, and just plain have fun at the races. This is a spectator's easy-to-understand guide, so you'll have no trouble identifying the racing breeds with their strengths and weaknesses, sizing up the jockey, understanding the importance and role of a trainer, placing bets, managing money, and beyond. Can't make it to the track? No worries! You'll get the scoop on online betting with off track betting sites and apps. This update covers the latest changes in the betting world and in the racing world, so you'll know just what you're wagering. Learn about the different types of horse racing Discover and identify the best racing breeds Know your jockeys and trainers Make smart wagers and manage your funds For beginning betters, Betting on Horse Racing For Dummies is your ticket to well informed wagers and a winning edge. Already know the ropes? You'll love the market trends and insider tips you'll find inside.

The remarkable true story of 'Big Red,' one of America's finest racehorses. When her beloved Meadow Stables is faced with closure following her father's illness, housewife and mother Penny Chenery agrees to take over. Despite her lack of horse-racing knowledge she calls in assistance from trainer Lucien Laurin and a host of successful jockeys. Pitted against the Phipps' racing dynasty, Penny takes the decision to breed her mare Somethingroyal to the Phipps' Bold Ruler, the nation's favourite stallion. With the toss of a coin it is agreed that one family will take Somethingroyal's first foal with the losing stable taking the colt out of Hasty Matelda and Somethingroyal's second foal. Penny loses the toss, but the wait for the unborn foal proves fortuitous when a bright red chestnut colt is born, Secretariat. Nicknamed "Big Red," with Laurin's guidance, Penny manages to navigate the male-dominated business of horse racing, ultimately fostering the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years and what may be the greatest racehorse of all time. Now, more than 30 years after its initial publication, the story of "Big Red" continues to be a classic. Secretariat is the tale of a great racehorse but also a testimony to the dedication of Penny Chenery. Following her triumph with Secretariat she was elected as the first female member of The Jockey Club, changing the face of American horse racing forever.

Miscellaneous matters are what keep us fascinated by what's going on around us while we indulge our own favourite interests. If one of those interests happens to be horseracing, then The Racing Post Horseracing Miscellany, full of marvellously magnificent moments - many magically memorable - from racing's several centuries of excellent equine existence, and an amazing, amusing, absorbing collection of little-known jockey japes, trainer and turf trivia, owner observations, punter punditry and bookie banter, is a book you will love. Every race meeting produces winners and also-rans, but every off-beat, intriguing story chronicled in this cornucopia of course and distance action will be an odds-on favourite with racegoers young and old. As the title suggests, you'll find literally thousands of little-known, unexpected yarns, tales and stories from the off to the finish line; the starting stalls to the winning post, the first to the last page. And you can bet it's an odds-on shot you'll know you have really backed a winner.

This practical book helps you interpret and connect the physical signals that horses display in response to their environment. These signals are evident in the everyday actions, gestures and attitudes that horses communicate to each other, but are often so subtle that they can go unnoticed by humans. This book aims to rectify that, offering horse lovers and equine professionals an opportunity to gain a unique insight into their 'horse's world'. Key features: includes detailed description of language signs of domestic horses, with a special emphasis on calming signals includes 275 pictures to visualize various language signs, calming signals, behaviour sequences and facial features presents communication ladders to show how a horse responds to incentives in his environment, and what signals he uses at certain moments contains tips on the use of the communication ladders and calming signals to improve the socialisation, training and wellbeing of your horse considers equine psychological stress from an environmental perspective, providing a valuable alternative to the current common clinical perspective. After reading this book you will be more astute in spotting calming signals, displacement activities, stress signals and distance-increasing signals, and better able to see which stimuli your horse can handle and which he cannot. This means you will know what to do to calm your horse before his stress rises to an unmanageable level. Language Signs and Calming Signals of Horses is both fascinating and important reading for any equine veterinary practitioner, student or nurse, as well as horse owners and trainers.

Rather like the regions intoned on BBC Radio's 'Shipping Forecast,' the names of Britain's sixty or so racecourses are regularly broadcast on TV and Radio sports programmes. But what are the racecourses actually like? Britain, where the thoroughbred evolved and where the sport of horseracing developed, has the most varied racing in the world and 60 racecourses in Britain have distinctive, intriguing and often eccentric atmospheres. Some are in parkland (Kempton, Sandown), and some follow the contours of rolling downs (Epsom, Goodwood). Some adjoin housing (Aintree, Ayr), some are bang next to busy roads (Doncaster, Wetherby), and some offer the racegoer uninterrupted views of gorgeous scenery (Cheltenham, Goodwood again). The oldest course in Britain, Chester (which staged its first races during the reign of Henry VIII), is also the smallest, running inside a Roman wall and circling the burial ground of a cross. York races take place on the Knavesmire, former site of public hangings. Other courses are products of royal enthusiasm for the sport: Charles II was largely responsible for the development of Newmarket, and Queen Anne founded Ascot. This is a portrait of the second most popular spectator sport in Britain, the country's 11th largest employer, as reflected in the colourful, eccentric and dramatic stories of the venues where it takes place.

Steve Cauthen commenced his 14-year 'English Odyssey' in April 1979. The erstwhile 'Kentucky Kid' had taken American racing by storm. A champion jockey at 17 and a Triple Crown winner at 18, the teenage prodigy became a bona fide celebrity but a slump of 110 consecutive losers saw him cross the Atlantic seeking to resurrect his career. Within weeks of his arrival 'The Kid' won an English Classic, the 2000 Guineas. He'd go on to become the only jockey to win both the Derby and the Kentucky Derby (plus those of Ireland, France and Italy); be the most recent jockey to win an English Triple Crown courtesy of Oh So Sharp in 1985; and secure three jockeys' championships - making him the only man to win titles in both America and England. Moreover, Cauthen was a supreme stylist who transformed English race-riding: his streamlined American toe-in-the-iron seat and clock-in-the-head judgement of pace sparking widespread imitation. The list of household names benefiting from his sublime talents are legion and this most articulate of jockeys recalls every one of them in his own inimitable style along with all the attendant highs and lows in this first complete retelling of his 'English Odyssey'.

In horse racing greatness is defined by speed. Being the second fastest counts for little. You have to win. And win. And keep winning until every challenger of your generation is put to the sword. Of the twelve horses lined up on Newmarket Heath that 2011 day, one would do just that. And more. To become the greatest racehorse that has ever lived. Frankel was born on 11 February 2008, with four white socks and a blaze, from impressive equine lines on both his parents' sides. Simon Cooper revisits the whole of the horse's life, giving readers an inside tour of the calm oasis that is life a stud farm, where a foal will live with his mother for the first year of his life. Next, the atmosphere of heady possibility that marks the early days of training. Roadwork. Gallops. Trials. Turning raw potential into something more. Frankel begins to set himself apart. A detailed and fast-paced narrative breathlessly recounts the racing career of the horse who, by his retirement to stud at the age of 4, would be rated the greatest of all time. Cooper weaves the horse's tale with those of his trainer, battling cancer, the stablehands who coped with his explosive nature, the work rider who tamed him, the the jockey who rode in all fourteen of his races, and the owner who saw his potential from the very beginning. The result is a rich and multifaceted tale of modern horse racing, the lives of everyone involved, human and equine, and the unadulterated glory of winning. And winning everything.

Dr Tony Ryan Award finalist, 2019 'A wonderfully insightful, detailed and emotional biography of the legendary trainer's later years' Racing Post '[Cecil's] is a remarkable story and it has now been told with compassion, love, honesty and wonderful insight by Tony Rushmer' David Walsh, Sunday Times With a foreword by John Gosden When Henry Cecil sent out just 12 winners in 2005 it seemed as if the 10-time champion racehorse trainer's career was in terminal decline. The masterly touch that he'd shown through the glory-days of the two previous decades appeared to have deserted him after a series of painful professional and personal blows, including the death of his twin brother David. When Cecil was diagnosed with cancer in June 2006, it would have been enough to break many a man. But behind the scenes, the master of Warren Place in Newmarket was determined not to be labelled - in his words - a 'has-been'. Showing an iron resolve to fight for his professional reputation as well as his life, Cecil staged one of the great sporting comebacks. It was a story that captured the imagination of the racing public and beyond, peaking with his supreme handling of the unbeaten champion Frankel. Cecil's astonishing revival was witnessed in close-up by Tony Rushmer. The sports journalist became a trusted stable insider after being engaged in spring 2006 to help with the trainer's website and PR. He would remain part of the team right up until Cecil died in June 2013. Rushmer's unique access over seven years - in which he saw Cecil at the best and worst of times - allows him to provide a fresh perspective on an incredible part of the trainer's career. He is helped by many of those who were closest to the story, having interviewed numerous people during his extensive research. Containing fascinating detail and a wealth of new material, The Triumph of Henry Cecil shows how Cecil emerged from his slump, displayed relentless strength in the face of a cruel disease and trained the magnificent Frankel - as brilliant a racehorse as the sport has ever known.