Book review: Doped

I have just finished reading Doped (Jamie Reid, Racing Post Books, 2013), winner of the 2013 William Hill Sports Book of the Year.

A very enjoyable but head-shaking read. Some of the exploits were so brazen I had to remind myself it was a true story and not the fantastical plot of a Dick Francis novel.

The book would have benefited from more references and notes. Some of the details would only have been known to the participants but there is not an extensive bibliography or appendix giving the source of certain details.

In summary, for a period in the 1960s a gang of dopers wandered into racing stables across the country and doped horses at will and profited from the horses' subsequent poor runs (as did selected bookmakers and criminals).

It was a very risky business with high stakes that went beyond the financial. The dopers started on Flat horses, including several runners in Classics and high profile races, but also expanded into National Hunt runners too. 

In jumps races, the risk of a doped horse falling and killing its jockey was higher than in Flat races. If the dopers were caught they could be charged with murder, which in 1960s UK could still carry the death penalty. But it didn't seem to act as a deterrent.

The dopers were not always successful. Sometimes they over-doped the horse which caused it to be withdrawn from the race. Other times they were out-foxed.

Trainer Fred Rimell became suspicious after some of the gang paid a visit to the yard under the pretext of wanting to have horses in training with him. 

He suspected they were interested in getting at his Grand National hope Nicolaus Silver so he switched the grey and placed another grey horse in his stable. The dopers did indeed return and unwittingly doped the wrong horse.

Nicolaus Silver went on to win the 1961 Grand National and was returned at 28/1 because of rumours he had been doped and could not win!

Quite early on in the book the author really gets to the heart of the matter as to why what happened was able to happen:

"There was no whining about 'transparency' or 'accountability' as there would be today. Geoffrey Hamlyn [SP compiler for the Sporting Life] took the view that in matters of sin on the racecourse it was about a 50-50 split between the bookmakers on the one side and trainers and jockeys on the other."

Charlie Maskey of Victor Chandler recalled "We all knew they [trainers and jockeys] were at it and they all knew we knew."

It is easy to take a romantic view of past crimes with colourful characters, such as are recalled in Doped. But the gang's actions ruined horse's lives, deprived jockeys and trainers of victories with their leading horses and defrauded the betting public who placed wagers on runners that could not possibly win.

Given that these scandalous events occurred in the early days of legalised off-course betting, it's amazing that betting on horseracing has survived at all.

The end of the book felt a bit disappointing because of the lack of known details about what exactly happened to the main protagonists in later decades. But, overall, it was a well compiled account of an extraordinary period in the Turf's history. 

Book Review: The Cambridge Companion To Horseracing

Rebecca Cassidy (ed.) (2013) The Cambridge Companion To Horseracing. Cambridge University Press

The Cambridge Companion To Horseracing is a collection of short essays covering a diverse range of topics from art, to literature, to technology’s role in the future of the betting sector.

Reading the introduction I was initially concerned about the direction the essays would take. The introduction talks of ‘old histories, new histories’ and how existing racing literature presents racing as ‘irrelevant and parochial: a white, Anglophile, upper-class sport’. The editor states ‘isn’t it time to ditch old histories in favour of more exciting, accurate and inclusive alternatives?’

Always beware the ‘inclusive’ agenda.

Thankfully, the contributors choose largely to ignore the editor’s slant (or maybe they couldn’t meet the brief with the research at their disposal). The first chapter, for example, is entitled Sporting with Kings (Richard Nash) and describes the role that the English royalty and nobility had in the formative years of what would become thoroughbred racing in the 17th and 18th Century. Discussing the life of the Godolphin Arabian, one of the foundation stallions, the author believes the stallion may have been a diplomatic gift of the ambassador of the Emperor of Morocco and his ultimate owner was Lord Godolphin in 1733.

A later essay, Racing in Asia (Mark Godfrey), focuses on Dr Harry Sweeney, an Irish trainer who has established a very successful training operation in Japan. In discussing the potential for racing in China, Sweeney believes ‘wealthy Chinese will embrace the sport’. Why? Because ‘racing is the ultimate status symbol, get [sic] you up close with royalty like Queen Elizabeth, or the Aga Khan, or Sheikh Mohammed’.
 
The newly rich in Asia are drawn to horseracing precisely because of its links to the upper-classes and British royalty. Indeed, the roots of horse racing across much of Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, China (Shanghai), Malaysia), like it or not, lie in the British colonial era when the English upper-classes transported their racing interests overseas. Several of the jockey and turf clubs they established exist to this day.

Racehorse ownership is an expensive business. By nature, it will always be the preserve of the wealthy, which in previous centuries often meant the nobility. In the modern age the newly wealthy see ownership and involvement in racing as a status symbol and if the new millionaires are coming from Asia why not play-up Britain’s racing history and tradition?

However hard you try to write ‘inclusive alternatives’, Britain has an undeniably long history of horseracing. It was the home of several key developments in the administration of racing such as the General Stud Book and institutions like Weatherbys, often done by white Englishmen. As a result, British racing and betting has a very strong reputation round the world. Even today, Brits will be found at the heart of the world’s largest betting operations from the US to Asia.

Why ditch this history, especially when new potential owners and breeders in places like China are keen to embrace them?

Regardless of academic agenda, the collection of essays in the companion makes a very enjoyable journey through many aspects of horseracing and betting. If you are interested in racing topics beyond what happens on the track this season it a worthwhile read.

Book Review: Britain and Ireland’s Top 100 Racehorses Of All Time

Robin Oakley (2012) Britain and Ireland’s Top 100 Racehorses Of All Time. Corinthian Books

As trainer Henrietta Knight rightly points out in the foreword to the book: “How could anybody choose their top 100 racehorses and place them into an order?”

The ranking of particular horses is not the point of this book. Rather it is a mechanism by which to take a trip through a history of the Turf through some of the horses that dominated their era. An enjoyment of horseracing is not dependent on knowing all of the horses from bygone times but learning about the great horses of the past can help explain why there is a race called the Arkle Challenge Trophy at the Cheltenham Festival, or why Chester racecourse has a race named the Ormonde Stakes.

Robin Oakley’s book provides an excellent historical tour across the decades of the racing superstars of Flat and jumps of the time. Reading this well-researched volume will improve your knowledge of the Turf’s history immeasurably.

I approached this book by starting at the end, with the horse that Oakley placed in #1 spot and worked my way back to the front of the book. I also only read one or two entries at time because I found that reading any more diminished how impressed I was by each horse’s achievements, as all the wins and records began to merge. The best way to enjoy this book is definitely to dip into it for short bursts.

It is also worth reading Robin Oakleys’s racing column in the Spectator magazine for insightful opinions and interviews on racing matters.