Two New (to Me) Horse-Racing Books

[dressagetraks]

Yesterday, I worked setup at the big library sale the county next door has twice a year. They cancelled the spring sale, really debated about the fall, but they already had eight semis of donated books from spring that didn’t get put out, and more has come in since. They really needed to have one and not wait for next spring. So they are going forward with masks required and extra precautions. The hall they rent is huge, like a Walmart supercenter, so room to spread out.

Anyway, I spent the whole afternoon unloading boxes of books from the semis. The sale wasn’t open yet technically until today, but at the end of the afternoon, they let the volunteers browse for a few minutes as a reward for working. I browsed in the animals section first, of course, and found two horse-racing books, neither of which I have read, but at $1 each for good condition hardbacks, worth trying out. Has anybody read these? Are they good?

Rambling Willie: The Horse God Loved. I’ve heard of Rambling Willie but don’t know much else about him and had never read his book.

Short Heads and Tall Tales by Lester Piggott. Definitely familiar with Lester Piggott, but had no idea he did a book himself. I’ve read the Dick Francis biography.

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[LaurieB]

Happy reading! Please come back with a review of the book by Lester Piggott.

[dressagetraks]

I’ll give the Lester Piggott book 3 1/2 stars, docking one star for meandering and half a star because things reported gleefully as “Lester’s sense of humor” didn’t always strike me as so funny. In particular, he was known on more than one occasion (in a pre internet, pre instant news and cell phone contact world), to call the trainer of a horse he wanted to ride the next day and report that Jockey A, who was named instead, had a conflict and wasn’t going to be able to make it, and as it just so happened, Lester was available to fill in. The trainer would gladly accept Lester as a substitute jockey since A couldn’t ride, and Jockey A, who had no conflicts at all, would arrive at the track the next day to discover that he had been jocked off and that Lester was now officially substituted. Deliberately lying to undercut people doesn’t quite strike me as a joke. Of course, for all I know, others did all the time, too, but that still doesn’t mean I have to like it. I can understand expressing interest in someone else’s mount if a vacancy did happen to come up but not lying that something had.

Anyway, the book is cowritten, and you get parts directly from Lester (in italics), then parts from his co writer. These are brief little anecdotes; it makes a great bathroom book. Plenty of stories about horses famous and not, jockeys famous and not, trainers famous and not. Neat stories, and there are some very amusing illustrations, too. The main thing that dropped it a star was the organization or lack thereof. It is divided by chapters into trainers, jockeys, the press, etc., but within those chapters, there is no system at all. It’s clearly just whatever came to mind next, and you jump all over the place chronologically. I freely admit that I’m hyperorganized, but it’s a little too stream of consciousness to get full enthusiasm from me. I would have liked the stories better organized within each chapter.

That said, I’m keeping it. The stories are neat, often funny, and you get some nice trivia about horses, trainers, jockeys, etc.

As for Rambling Willie, I’m just starting it, but I like the style of writing so far. I can already tell I’ll keep it, too.

[LaurieB]

Thank you for the review, @dressagetraks .

I wouldn’t find the part about Piggott taking other guys’ rides funny either. Add that to the lack of organization and I’ll probably give it a pass.

[danceronice]

I seem to recall Rambling Willie was retired to the Hall of Champions at the Kentucky Horse Park. He was there when we visited when I was a kid, and I remember during the presentation their talking about how his owner promised to tithe ten percent and then he went on to make a ton of money. Definitely made an impression at the time!