John Hammond

For the first time in my memory, maybe since the war, there is a complete shutdown of racing in France, Ireland and the UK. It goes without saying that we in racing live in our own little bubble and the effects of the coronavirus are considerably more dramatic on other areas of society. We are in unchartered territory however. So, for the moment, all we can do is to hunker down and ride out the storm. 'Our magnificent triviality' was the description used by the much missed Hugh McIlvanney, Scotland's...

Black Maestro: The Epic Life of an American Legend By Joe Drape A fascinating story about Jimmy Winkfield, a black American jockey riding around 1900. He rode the winner of the Kentucky Derby twice before he was 20. At that time racing was the best attended sport in the US (hell, what happened?). It also had more skulduggery than today. Run out of America by the Irish jocks who ganged up on him, he fled to Europe. First Poland, where he became champion jockey and learnt Polish, then Russia where...