My Racing Certainties- Bobby McAlpine

In the racing game much is credited to jockeys, trainers and of course horses. Hardly a ‘name’ in either category lacks newspaper features, full blown biographies or TV exposure – and quite right too. As for the owners... They get their names printed on the race cards and appear at racecourse presentations – but that’s about it. Not a lot, considering they pay through the nose for the privilege of owning, training and often breeding the horses.

My Racing Certainties does its bit to redress the balance – and in a most entertaining way. The author has been an owner since the 1950s and although he says he’d be a much richer man if he’d never caught sight of a racehorse he, like so many other owners, would not have missed the roller coaster ride for anything. This then is a view of horse racing through the eyes of someone who has experienced most parts of it. Its history, its close connections with Royalty through the ages, the ups and downs of being an owner, trainers and jockeys he has been involved with, the important courses, the punters, management of racecourses and the challenges of being a Steward.

Altogether a bright and breezy read which should appeal to all who have an interest in the noble sport and are looking for their own Racing Certainties.

THE AUTHOR

Few people have more experience of all sides of horse racing than Bobby McAlpine. An owner for over sixty years, a racecourse Steward in his twenties, Bobby has done almost everything except ride in a race. 

He owned two exceptional horses, Precipice Wood who won the Ascot Gold Cup when Bobby was thirty-nine and Cormorant Wood, which he bred, winner of four of today’s premiere Group Ones, including the Champion Stakes, the Juddmonte and the Lockinge. He has been chairman of Chester and Bangor-on-Dee racecourses and a director of Aintree and there are few notables in racing he does not know. He also bred Inglis Drever and won the Supreme Novice at Cheltenham with River Ceiriog, trained by his good friend Nicky Henderson.

My Racing Certainties is a story of horse racing and the people who make it so appealing and it comes from first-hand experience.

Reviews: 

'Bobby McAlpine can tell a good story, which is why his many friends and several acquaintances, even strangers, will enjoy his second collection of random thoughts, gleaned from a lifetime following horseracing from one vantage point or another, from owner and breeder to punter and racecourse steward and director... McAlpine is at his best when drawing on his 60 plus years as an owner to relate tales of his dearest associates and passing comments on others, well known to most readers... and at is absolute best when detailing Robert Sangster's life and times on and off the racecourse.' Racing Post

'Bobby looks at the world of racing through a different pair of eyes and shares his own experiences of the Sport of Kings. He reveals some anecdotes from one of the most famous racehorse owners, Robert Sangster, and considers the sport’s connections with royalty.' Horse Magazine

'This latest book expands upon that passion, telling us - among other things - more about the figures without whom the sport would not exist, but who tend not to loom large in the headlines - the owners who, like McAlpine himself, put their money into horseflesh knowing that they will probably be out of pocket in the long run. Bobby also tells us, in an engaging prose style, about his experience of stewarding, the Jockey Club, the history and merits of the nation’s racecourses and, of course, betting.' Cheshire Life