Cheltenham et Al: The Best of Alastair Down - Hardcover

Alastair Down

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1908216050 ISBN 13: 9781908216052

Publisher: Racing Post Books, 2014

Synopsis

For over 30 years Alastair Down has written about horseracing with an unrivalled cocktail of wit, insight, passion and descriptive power - a combination which has brought him legions of enthusiastic readers, both within and beyond the racing world.

Alastair Down on the Cheltenham Festival: 'To go there and stand witness to extraordinary events is a rare and wonderful act of being at one with your fellow clutterers of the planet.'

On his favourite racehorse: 'I'll still thump anyone who doesn't appreciate that Rondetto was the greatest chaser of all time.'

On recovering after an over-indulgent day at Longchamp: 'I just wish to be left alone with my thoughts and sincere hopes that my liver, which I mailed home by separate refrigerated container, will arrive soon.'

On Frankel's last race: 'There were tears speckling the cheers, because there is something almost inexplicably humbling about being in the presence of greatness of this magnitude.'

Cheltenham et Al offers a generous collection of his very best columns, providing the Down angle on the great horses, jockeys and trainers; the famous races which remain indelibly in the sport's collective memory; the controversies; the laughs - in short, the highs and the lows of racing. By turns moving, uplifting and laugh-out-loud funny, this book provides ample proof of one racing certainty: that no one catches the spirit of racing as Alastair Down does.

Winner of the Horse Racing Book of the Year in the 2015 Cross British Sports Book Awards.

About this title

About the Author

Alastair Down joined The Sporting Life in 1981 and remained with that paper until its closure in 1998, at which point he joined the Racing Post. For many years he was senior presenter on Channel 4 Racing during the jumps season, and he has been named Racing Journalist of the Year three times.

Edition details

• Publisher: Racing Post Books
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1908216050
• ISBN 13: 9781908216052
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288