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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Equestrian & animal sports > Horse racing
The Queen's Plate was inaugurated, with royal blessing, on
Wednesday, June 27, 1860, at the Carleton track in Toronto, located
in bucolic surroundings near what is now the traffic-strangled
southwestern corner of Keele and Dundas streets. There is no reason
to believe that Queen Victoria was a wild-eyed devotee of horse
racing. However, Her Majesty granted the petition of the little
turf club in the boisterous Upper Canada community (the population
of Toronto was 44,425) and offered as an annual prize, "a plate to
the value of Fifty Guineas." And thus Canadian horse racing was
established as "the sport of royalty." Today, the Queen's Plate is
the first jewel in Canada's Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing and
the longest continuously run stakes race in North America. It takes
place every June, and the first-place purse is $1 million. The
Plate is unquestionably Canada's most famous, one-day social and
sporting event. This book explores the colourful history of the
Queen's Plate through words and archival photographs.
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Unbreakable
(Paperback)
Richard Askwith
1
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R459
R374
Discovery Miles 3 740
Save R85 (19%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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Discover a story that defies belief: National Velvet meets Downton
Abbey with a splash of The Leopard. * LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM
HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR * Czechoslovakia, October 1937. Vast
crowds have gathered to watch the Grand Pardubice steeplechase,
Europe's most blood-curdling sporting test of manhood. With war
looming, the race has a brutal political significance. The Nazis
have sent the SS's all-conquering paramilitary horsemen to crush -
yet again - the 'subhuman Slavs'. But Lata Brandisova, a
silver-haired countess on a little golden mare, has other ideas...
'Heart-stopping reading' Clover Stroud, Daily Telegraph
Fully updated with a new chapter on A.P.'s knighthood, the BBC
Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement award and his
new role as a TV pundit When Tony 'A.P.' McCoy announced his
retirement from racing, the shockwaves reverberated across the
world of sport. With more than 4,300 winners to his name, McCoy
seemed to be at the peak of his powers when he suddenly brought
down the curtain on an extraordinary career. But then A.P. McCoy
has always done things his way. In Winner: My Racing Life, AP
reflects upon his unparalleled career, taking the reader from his
humble beginnings in County Antrim to the emotional day at Sandown
when horse racing bade a tearful farewell to arguably its greatest
ever star. McCoy relates in forensic detail the process that led to
his decision to retire, recalls some of his greatest rides, lifts
the lid on his family life and looks ahead to a future no longer
driven by the constant pursuit of victory. The result is a
remarkable insight into the private and public life of a true
winner.
Here, for the first time, is the story of how America's first
national resort gave birth to, then nurtured, its first national
sport, introducing the country to a parade of champions and their
spectacular supporting characters. To experience this adventure is
to see why the Saratoga Race Course, America's oldest major sports
facility remains one of its most beloved and most successful.
They're Off! is as much a social history as it is sports history.
Edward Hotaling opens with a little-known visit by the first famous
tourist, George Washington, who tried to buy the place he called
"the Saratoga Springs". Soon the pursuit of happiness at our
original vacationland helped redefine America. Even at the height
of the Civil War, the country's first organized sport was launched
on a national scale.
The son of a poor butcher, John Gully rose to the height of
Victorian respectability, whose death in ripe old age was mourned
by all classes from paupers to princes. It's the story of an
extraordinarily varied life - a bare knuckle fighter and champion
of England, a publican, a hugely successful gambler, bookmaker,
racehorse and colliery owner, and finally a Member of Parliament.
Set at a time when fortunes were won and lost on the turn of a
dice, Gully saw the greed and corruption, the rogues and rascals.
Remarkable sporting characters of the age feature, such as William
Crockford, the Betting Shark; the chivalrous prize fighter Henry
Pearce; the mighty Tom Cribb, bare knuckle champion of the world;
and Colonel Mellish, prolific gambler and finest of the
Corinthians. Enemies saw Gully as a cunning man, a schemer who
corrupted the betting world. To others he was a man with impeccable
judgement and integrity, to whom royalty would trust their
fortunes. The Stakes Were High is the fascinating story of his
life.
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