John Oaksey A Racing Life – Mince Pie for Starters – Hardback Book

Description

Amateur Jockey, Racing Journalist and TV Presenter – ‘three jobs jobs and made a nonsense of all three’.

It was not always quite as bad as one ungrateful editor made it sound but ever since Mince Pie tossed John Oaksey headlong into the world’s of racing and riding, it has been clear that his story was going to contain at least as many failures as successes.

Having developed his riding skills and competitiveness o the hunting field as a boy, the idea of following his father (a trial judge at Nuremberg and counsel to the Jockey Club) into the legal profession was always going to be outweighed by the lure of the racecourse. A lifelong passion was born.

Oaksey vividly brings to life the joy and the camaraderie of the racing world over the last half century. He has loved and admired a lot of brave horses, including some pretty slow ones. Then there are those characters, at all levels of the sport, who have helped make racing such a vital part of his life. His stories of them all are, in turn, revealing, moving and hilarious.

Anyone who loves racing will find their memories of triumphs and masterpieces, tragedies and disasters rekindled. John Oaksey portrays the sport’s heroes in a revealing and entertaining new light and show why it is that, for him, the racecourse has always held the greatest appeal.