

Originally published May 2018. Sport. The very fine margins. The difference between winning and losing. The moments that define a career. The moments that define a life. There has been an awful lot of talk recently about FOBT’s. About levels of prize money....
The brutal unpredictability of sport

Towcester: a charming but challenged racecourse
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 2017 This is the last in a series of four articles on the history of British racecourses and their struggle for economic prosperity. It focuses on Towcester – an independent, and a prime example of the diversity of British...
Towcester: a charming but challenged racecourse

There is no such person as a fat jockey
The result of the 1886 Cambridgeshire horse race shows that St Mirin was beaten a neck by Sailor Prince and that the losing horse carried a pound overweight. Jockey, Fred Archer, rider of second-placed St Mirin, blamed himself for the defeat as he had been unable to...
There is no such person as a fat jockey

The Iroquois Steeplechase
The second Saturday of May. Percy Warner Park. First race due off at 1.00pm. By which time a huge crowd will have assembled. The infield strewn with vast pick up trucks, parties of young men and Southern Belles dressed to impress, seersucker suits, barbecue smoke...
The Iroquois Steeplechase

Newmarket: the headquarters of British racing
This is the third in a series of four articles on the history of British racecourses and their struggle for economic prosperity. It focuses on Newmarket – the headquarters of British racing – and the growth of commercial joint ventures in promoting the sport’s...
Newmarket: the headquarters of British racing