100 Favourite Racehorses: The "Racing Post's" Definitive Reader's Poll [Hardcover]

There have been many books published with greatest racehorses as a basic theme, but this one is different from the usual, being based on favorites selected by polling readers of a racing newspapers. Inevitably, this results in a different selection of horses but the journalistic approach is also a little different. I'll use Julian Wilson's excellent book (The great racehorses, which I've already reviewed) as a comparison.

Julian's book covers the greatest horses of all time, including those from different eras (going all the way back to Eclipse 250 years ago) and different countries (you'll find horses from North America and Australia in his book). Understandably, Julian's book is biased towards horses that he has seen at first hand, therefore horses from different eras or from other countries are under-represented but such horses scarcely get a mention in this Racing Post book - that's not a criticism, just what you'd expect given the method of selection. 70 of Julian's 100 horses raced on the flat - partly a reflection of the longer tradition of flat racing and partly a reflection of the higher status of flat racing among racing professionals. The Racing Post book features many more steeplechasers and hurdlers than Julian's book, as well as featuring horses of modest ability that nevertheless endeared themselves to racing fans.

Within the 100 selected horses, Julian's book made no attempt to rank them and gave them all approximately equal treatment. The Racing Post book, being based on a poll, has a ready-made ranking and the most popular horses get much more coverage. All the photographs in this book are black and white. Julian's book contained mainly black and white pictures but there were some colour pictures too.

The poll was taken early in 2004 so horses that became popular in that year had no chance of getting votes while others (like Moscow Flyer and Best Mate) who enhanced their reputations that year are more popular than their ranking suggests.. However, the book took several months to prepare for publication, allowing time for a chapter to be added listing those horses (including Attraction and Ouija Board) that might have made the top 100 if the poll had been able to take their achievements into account. Perhaps a second poll could have been organized and published in this chapter but it wasn't.

By now, you'll realize that even if you've got Julian's book or another equivalent book, you're not wasting your money buying this book. Having realized that it is about popular horses rather than strictly the best horses, I wasn't especially surprised at the 100 selected although there were some notable omissions. I was surprised but pleased to see Golden Miller here, because he raced in the 1930's - his presence is a reflection of his legendary status. I was also surprised at the inclusion of Katy Nowaitee (87th on the list), a good filly but not one that anybody would expect to see featured in a book like this. I assume that the timing of the poll, taken when she was fresh in the memory of voters, helped her.

Among those that were selected, it was no surprise to see that four of the top five horses are steeplechasers and the other is a hurdler. Arkle, Desert Orchid, Red Rum, Istabraq and One Man all spent several years racing, building up their popularity with their exploits on the racecourse. As my favorite flat horse has always been Mill Reef (who ranks 13 in the list), I was a little surprised to see that the highest-ranking flat horse (at 6 in the list) is Brigadier Gerard, but I'm pleased that both of the 1971 2,000 Guineas rivals linger long in the memory of so many racing fans.

Brits sometimes like losers too, hence the inclusion of Amrullah (at 92 on the list). The book is a little unkind to him, saying that he had a semblance of ability. As I remember Amrullah, he was better than that description suggests, coming close to winning several times in good company. However, even when dropped in class, he always found a way to lose - that was his appeal to me. The book mentions Quixall Crossett (who didn't make the top 100) in the piece on Amrullah, but he was just a slow horse who never looked likely to win - not like Amrullah at all.

Giant's Causeway, who contested nine Group One races as a three-year-old, winning five and finishing a close second in the other four, made the top twenty. He is one of several horses in this book that raced in America's Breeders' Cup. Americans who follow breeding will recognize the names of a few other horses here, especially Britain's last triple crown winner, Nijinsky, who was bred in Canada, trained in Ireland and retired to America where he became an outstanding success as a stallion.

Elsewhere, this book includes all (well, nearly all) the popular horses that raced in Britain over the past forty years - Sea Pigeon, Double Trigger, Tingle Creek, Captain Christy, Flagship Uberalis, Viking Flagship, Bula, Pendil, Persian War, Persian Punch, Pebbles, Dancing Brave, Aldaniti, Crisp, Dawn Run, L'Escargot, Monksfield, Night Nurse, Shergar, Wayward Lad, Mtoto, Sea Bird, Troy, Grundy and Lammtarra among them.

This may not be the most scholarly book about racehorses but it is most enjoyable and allows fans of British racing to read about some of the popular racehorses of recent times.

I personally loved this book from cover to cover. I have been a passionate follower of horse racing since the late seventies and ALL my favourites are mentioned in this book, I couldn't believe it. I'm afraid it brought tears to my eyes, especially when the names 'Sea Pigeon' and 'Night Nurse' are mentioned, even though I wasn't very old when they were in their prime. The black and white picures may be a let down, but I thought that the write ups on each horse more than made up for this! I am so glad that I now have this book in my collection.

By now this is a well known book and nearly everyone will have read the poll results in the Racing Post. But it is worth reminding people that this book is one to have in their collections and a great gift to give to anyone you know who has not bought it.

I wanted to give it 5 stars, and on concept I would, except for the black and white photos. I realise some of them are unavoidable but more colour would have been great so we could remember the silks the horses we voted for carried.

At the time of the poll there was much debate about who would be the top 3 and what order they would end up in. But I had a great clue which made it all obvious to me, a painting by Susan Crawford that many of us have in the house. We Three Kings. And there it was, exactly how she painted them.

How we voted was of course related to the time and some horses were omitted or included who may not have been had the poll been run another time.

Nevertheless it was fun to relive their glory days one and all, and this is a book to have and to hold close.