Best-selling authors Dick Francis and John Welcome bring us a richly entertaining collection of classic horse racing stories by authors past and present. Here are selections from Damon Runyon, whose “Pick the Winner” introduces us to the unforgettable, ironically named Hot Horse Herbie and “his everloving fiancee, Miss Cutie Singleton”; Molly Keane, with a brilliant evocation of racing among the Anglo-Irish gentry in the story “Pullinstown”; Banjo Patterson, the Australian Bush Balladeer, whose “The Oracle” presents a classic specimen of the species found at the tracks the world over, the tout; and much more. Francis and Welcome bring readers another richly entertaining collection of the best horse-racing stories by authors past and present. Here are selections from Damon Runyon, Molly Keane, Banjo Patterson, and others, as well as one selection each from Francis and Welcome. In “My First Winter,” John Welcome’s narrator describes how he was hoodwinked by his best friend into riding a horse for him in a comical steeplechase. And in “Spring Fever,” Dick Francis unfolds the tale of the fiftyish widow, Mrs. Angela Hart, who is entirely too trusting of her conniving trainer and jockey, until a chance hint alerts her to their deception and gives her the opportunity for revenge.
