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Mr Darley's Arabian - High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses: Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award (Paperback)
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Mr Darley's Arabian - High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses: Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award (Paperback)
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List price R400
Loot Price R365
Discovery Miles 3 650
You Save R35 (9%)
Expected to ship within 9 - 17 working days
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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.
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