This book evaluates the status quo of integrity management within sports that involve horses worldwide. Sports governing bodies and international sports federations are very powerful organisations within their sphere and the governance of these sports has created a hegemony which does not necessarily serve the interests of those engaged in sport, rather those who 'rule' sport. This book investigates the question of whether cheating is discouraged and fair play rewarded, both to an adequate degree.

THE SPORTS BOOK AWARDS INTERNATIONAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR Kieren Fallon was one of the world's greatest jockeys, but his career was littered with controversial incidents. Now, in his powerful and honest autobiography, he tells all. 'The most eagerly anticipated racing autobiography for many years' Greg Wood, Guardian As a jockey, Kieren Fallon had a unique rapport with his horses, often coaxing them to victory when others had struggled. His skill and commitment made him a punter's favourite. His magnificent record, which saw him crowned Champion Jockey on six occasions, ensured he became one of racing's biggest stars. But that was only ever part of the story. Having come over to the UK from Ireland to make his name, Fallon's combative nature brought him to the attention of the racing authorities. When he dragged a rival jockey off his mount in 1994, he began a series of run-ins that would eventually see him on trial in the Old Bailey, accused of race fixing. Although the judge eventually ruled that there was no case to answer, the damage to his career and reputation had been done. In Form, Kieren Fallon provides a searingly honest account of his life, and the pressures he faced to get to the top of his sport, where winning was never enough, and where relaxation came in the shape of a bottle of vodka or a meal that had to be 'flipped' immediately to ensure he maintained his weight. He worked with some of the best trainers and won all the biggest races, but true happiness only ever really came to him when he was on the back of a horse - a joy that he still feels now that he has retired from racing as he rides work early in the morning. Brutally honest as well as entertaining, this is a unique sporting memoir.

Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award In 1704 a bankrupt English merchant sent home the colt he had bought from Bedouin tribesmen near the ruins of Palmyra. Thomas Darley hoped this horse might be the ticket to a new life back in Yorkshire. But he turned out to be far more than that: and although Mr Darley's Arabian never ran a race, 95% of all thoroughbreds in the world today are descended from him. In this book, for the first time, award-winning racing writer Christopher McGrath traces this extraordinary bloodline through twenty-five generations to our greatest modern racehorse, Frankel. The story of racing is about man's relationship with horses, and Mr Darley's Arabian also celebrates the men and women who owned, trained and traded the stallions that extended the dynasty. The great Eclipse, for instance, was bred by the Duke who foiled Bonnie Prince Charlie's invasion (with militia gathered from Wakefield races) and went on to lead the Jockey Club. But he only became a success once bought and raced by a card-sharp and brothel-keeper - the racecourse has always brought high and low life together. McGrath expertly guides us through three centuries of scandals, adventures and fortunes won and lost: our sporting life offers a fascinating view into our history. With a canvas that extends from the diamond mines of South Africa to the trenches of the Great War, and a cast ranging from Smithfield meat salesmen to the inspiration for Mr Toad, and from legendary jockeys to not one, but two disreputable Princes of Wales (and a very unamused Queen Victoria), Mr Darley's Arabian shows us the many faces of the sport of kings.

In 1968, a few women, mockingly labeled "jockettes" by a skeptical press, had begun demanding the right to apply for jockey licenses, citing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination in hiring based on race, religion, sex, or national origin. Most of their applications were rejected by racing's bureaucracy, which alleged that women were unqualified to participate due to "physical limitations" and "emotional instability." Female jockeys who attempted to ride met with boycotts by male jockeys. Onto this uneven terrain stepped 20-year-old Diane Crump, who had long since demonstrated her riding proficiency during a thousand workout rides on a thousand difficult Thoroughbreds ("I basically got on all the horses that no one else wanted to ride"). On February 7, 1969, having been granted a permit to ride at Florida's Hialeah Racetrack, Crump, surrounded by a protective phalanx of police officers, walked calmly toward the saddling enclosure as she endured heckles from the crowd. Diane's mount would not earn victory that day, but the young rider had earned a more fundamental prize: the right to compete in her chosen field. Just over a year later, on May 2, 1970, after 95 years and 1,055 all-male entrants, Diane Crump shattered tradition by becoming the first woman to ride in the Kentucky Derby. Over her career she amassed 235 wins.

People have been racing horses for thousands of years, all over the world. Yet horseracing is often presented as an English creation that was exported, unaltered, to the colonies. This Companion investigates the intersection of racing and literature, art, history and finance, casting the sport as the product of cross-class, cosmopolitan and international influences. Chapters on racing history and the origins of the thoroughbred demonstrate how the gift of a fast horse could forge alliances between nations, and the extent to which international power dynamics can be traced back to racetracks and breeding sheds. Leading scholars and journalists draw on original research and firsthand experience to create portraits of the racetracks of Newmarket, Kentucky, the Curragh, and Hunter Valley, exposing readers to new racing frontiers in China and Dubai as well. A unique resource for fans and scholars alike, reopening essential questions regarding the legacy and importance of horseracing today.

Horse racing may be famously known as the 'sport of kings' but, in the pursuit of prize money and getting one over the bookies, it also has attained a notoriety for some underhand, corrupt and downright illegal practices. Horse racing in Wales is not exempt from these dodgy dealings and on many occasions has led the way in it's ingenuity to devise jaw-dropping cons and cunning deceptions. In The Scams, Scandals and Gambles of Horseracing in Wales, Brian Lee, the veteran and highly regarded Welsh racing correspondent has, for the first time, compiled a comprehensive collection of true stories that reveals Welsh racing's most notorious crooks, loveable rouges and most infamous scams, including: The Oyster Maid affair, when a great gambling coup engineered at Tenby in 1927 nearly put paid to horse racing in Wales and was said by the Queen Mother's jockey, Dick Francis, to have been "the most bitterly resented betting coup National Hunt racing has ever known". The astounding story of Am I Blue's when, in 2010, a four-year-old filly, owned and trained by Aberkenfig's Delyth Thomas, romped home at Hereford after being backed from 25-1 to 5-1, despite having woeful form.As one reporter put it: 'There was outrage in some quarters and amusement in others. ' The elaborate switching of horses and the cutting of the telegraph wires at Bath races in 1953 which saw well-know Cardiff bookie Gomer Charles jailed for 2 years for fraud after his syndicate place GBP100k worth of bets on a 'ringer' racehorse that won at 20-1. The Scandals and Gambles of Horseracing in Wales includes stories both from racing 'under rules' but also from point-to-point, known as racing 'between-the-flags', as well as flapping (unlicensed racing). The stories in this enthralling book, in which the reader will meet many of the rogues of the turf, are informative as well as fascinating and will appeal to not only horse racing fans but also readers of true crime.

Taking My Time tells both the tall tale of George Baker's life as a jockey, and the story of a second life emerging from the aftermath of his horror fall on the White Turf at St Moritz in 2017. As a rider, George scaled the highest of highs in the saddle with St Leger victory aboard Harbour Law cementing his place among the sport's elite, despite having the body of a man surely destined for another occupation. Tortuous battles with the scales were ultimately won, popularity among peers and punters was assured and life was good and getting better. Until the terrible accident which left him with serious head injuries forced him to restart; he had to live again. He was the same person but different. New obstacles had to be cleared and trauma both physical and mental needed to be met and overcome. The story is told with the wit and wisdom that has come to characterise George Baker, and his wife Nicola recounts, with humour and humility, the toll taken on the those closest to him and the perilous nature of life at his side.

Drawing on the unique resources of the Racing Post, the tale of one of the sport's most popular racehorses is told. Since almost literally bursting onto the scene in the 2010 Champion Bumper at Cheltenham, when an unconsidered 40/1 shot, he hasn't left the Racing public's affections. Charismatic connections have helped colour the story but it is the achievement on the racecourse, the toughness in battle and the willingness to do it all over again, year in year out, even after that crunching, "million pound fall" in the 2016 Gold Cup. that has garnered this horse such a remarkable following. With the blessing and help of the Bishops (Cue Card's owners), plus the most heartfelt work of the Racing Post's formidable writers through the years, a fitting tribute is produced to a really special horse.

A failure at most things but not storytelling, this is Mick Channon Jnr's finest book to date. This is also his first book. Framed within the tribulations of a turbulent year in a racing yard, How's Your Dad? examines the relationship between a father and son. Mick Channon Snr, an arthritic workaholic and "grumpy old bastard", played football at the highest level for over twenty years. Almost uniquely, he followed up this sporting career with another, scaling the heights of racing. Mick Channon Jnr had plenty to live up to and despite enjoying the benefits of such a heritage he felt that pressure, as well as the relative anonymity of always being 'Mick's son'.

'The incredible story of the man who went from trying to win the Grand National to playing a key role in co-ordinating the French Resistance.' Daily Express An English racehorse trainer and horse dealer's son, John Goldsmith was born and brought up in Paris and spoke fluent French. In 1942 he was recruited in to the legendary Special Operations Executive, or SOE, and dropped three times behind enemy lines. In 1943 he organised the escape of a French air force general across the Pyrenees but a few months later he was caught by the Gestapo in Paris only to engineer his own getaway from a locked third floor hotel room. By the end of the war he had been awarded the DSO, MC, Croix de Guerre and Legion d'Honneur. Resuming his peacetime occupation in 1946 Goldsmith was sent numerous French racehorses to train. He found uncanny similarities between the secret agent's milieu and the black market world of Britain's post war racetracks and, in partnership with a high stakes Mayfair bookie, he orchestrated some of the most audacious betting coups in racing history.

In an era of spectacular thoroughbreds, Spectacular Bid was perhaps the most exalted racehorse of them all. In 1979 he won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes—and transcended his sport on a run of twelve consecutive stakes victories. But he lost his quest for the Triple Crown with a third-place finish in the Belmont Stakes due to a series of bizarre events that have never before been accurately reported. In The Fast Ride, Jack Gilden tells the story of what really happened the day the Bid lost the biggest race of his life. Along the way, he introduces the reader to a cast of characters from the gilded age of late twentieth-century horse racing, from Bid’s owners, the renowned Meyerhoff family, to Grover “Buddy� Delp, the fast-talking trainer, to teenage jockey Ronnie Franklin, whose meteoric rise to fame with Spectacular Bid came at the cost of his innocence and well-being. Also present are four of the era’s magnificent Latino riders, �ngel Cordero Jr., Jacinto Vásquez, Georgie Velásquez, and Ruben Hernandez, who all felt the sting of rejection and bigotry during their long careers even as they raised the level of competition to a feverish pitch. The Fast Ride is the story of a great racehorse, unfulfilled dreams, the exhilaration and steep price of striving at all costs, and an American era in which getting everything you ever wanted could be the most empty and unfulfilling sensation of all.  

Do you know what the oldest horse race in Britain is, where the term 'gee-gee' comes from, or who is credited with bringing racing to Ascot? Fact-packed but light-hearted in style, this reliable reference book and quirky guide reveals little-known facts, details of classic races, famous riders, racing records, amusing anecdotes and criminal goings-on. A compendium of the fascinating, strange and entertaining, The Little Book of Horse Racing can be dipped into time and time again to reveal something new about this ancient sport.

Seabiscuit was one of the most electrifying and popular attractions in sports history and the single biggest newsmaker in the world in 1938, receiving more coverage than FDR, Hitler, or Mussolini. But his success was a surprise to the racing establishment, which had written off the crooked-legged racehorse with the sad tail. Three men changed Seabiscuit’s fortunes:

Charles Howard was a onetime bicycle repairman who introduced the automobile to the western United States and became an overnight millionaire. When he needed a trainer for his new racehorses, he hired Tom Smith, a mysterious mustang breaker from the Colorado plains. Smith urged Howard to buy Seabiscuit for a bargain-basement price, then hired as his jockey Red Pollard, a failed boxer who was blind in one eye, half-crippled, and prone to quoting passages from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Over four years, these unlikely partners survived a phenomenal run of bad fortune, conspiracy, and severe injury to transform Seabiscuit from a neurotic, pathologically indolent also-ran into an American sports icon.

Author Laura Hillenbrand brilliantly re-creates a universal underdog story, one that proves life is a horse race.


From the Hardcover edition.

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.

Is this the right book for me? Do you want to make smart choices and win at the track? Whether you are a novice better or an experienced punter, it has all the tips and advice to help you spot a winner and enjoy this popular national pastime. This new edition has been been brought right up-to-date with interactive features. It explains not only such basics as the form and the nature of the races, but will also explain in full where to bet, how to bet, and how to do so successfully. It offers full and unique coverage of the latest phenomena, such as internet betting, online betting exchanges and spread betting. It also gives you vital tips in addition to providing practical information on how to avoid credit card fraud and how to make a successful selection. Back a Winning Horse includes: Chapter 1: Horse racing Origins of horse racing Thoroughbred horses Types of racing Grading of racing Handicaps Conditional races Gambling on horse racing A day at the races Owning a racehorse Racing around the world Chapter 2: Racecourse betting On-course bookmakers Tote betting Pari-mutuel Bookmaking Understanding the odds Factors affecting prices Placing a tote bet Chapter 3: Betting shops Types of price Disadvantages of using a betting shop Writing a bet Bookmakers' rules Types of bet Chapter 4: Remote betting Internet betting Types of internet betting Types of bet How bets are matched Ordering odds How to bet Spread betting Playing safe Telephone betting Chapter 5: Making your selection Factors you can assess Factors you cannot assess Gathering information Systems Effect of the draw at British and Irish racecourses Chapter 6: Betting tips Be aware of rules Appreciate your chances of winnin How bookmakers make a profit Keep records of your gambling Set a budget Staying in control Take account of all costs Be selective Take your time Maximize returns Be realistic How bookmakers try to make you spend more money Ground Type of race Betting on handicap races Number of runners Backing favourites Take the best price Making the best bet Betting each way Bets to avoid Placing large bets Big winners Steamers Collecting winnings Betting exchanges Hedging Dutching Syndicate betting Chapter 7: Checking results and calculating winnings Checking results Disputes with bookmakers Calculating winnings Using a ready reckoner Learn effortlessly with a new easy-to-read page design and interactive features: Not got much time? One, five and ten-minute introductions to key principles to get you started. Author insights Lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience. Test yourself Tests in the book and online to keep track of your progress. Extend your knowledge Extra online articles to give you a richer understanding of the subject. Five things to remember Quick refreshers to help you remember the key facts. Try this Innovative exercises illustrate what you've learnt and how to use it.

Racing's love affair with Enable began on a thundery afternoon at Epsom in June 2017 and continued for the remainder of an unparalleled career. Her CV boasts 11 Group 1 wins across two continents and four countries as she was tested against all-comers of all ages at the likes of Ascot, Chantilly, Churchill Downs, the Curragh, Longchamp, Sandown and York. These performances all bore witness to her incredible attitude and will to win. It is a testament to her connections that she was able to race for five seasons and at the age of six to be still mixing it with the best. Trainer John Gosden, jockey Frankie Dettori, groom Imran Shahwani and the rest of the team at Clarehaven Stables are all deserving of high praise, but most of all it is to owner-breeder Prince Khalid Abdullah for giving us - the racing public - the chance to enjoy her for so long. This look back at an extraordinary career has been compiled using the back catalogue of the Racing Post with its award-winning writers and photographers to retell the story of one of the best - and most popular - racehorses of modern times.

Butcher the Bookie with: The Adaptive System By Rod Watson, a Certified Accountant, former employee of the Secretaries to the Jockey Club and a professional punter, he has spent thirteen years developing The Adaptive System. The System will almost certainly put a brake on your loses, and practised with discipline and restraint, should, generate a nice secondary tax free income for you from horse racing All you need is a few hours a week (when it suits you), access to the internet and a small sum of seed capital. This little book packs a mighty punch! It is full of original tips and ideas that have been born out of over fifty years of observing horse racing.