'firsts. lasts & ONLYS'.

​I shall start my review of Paul Donnelley’s latest book ‘Firsts, Lasts & Onlys’ by addressing a mistake he made on page 209. I admit, I make too many mistakes and I beat myself up for it. The difference, though, between my glaring faux pas and that of, in this instance, Paul Donnelley, is he is a professional, sales from his books pay his mortgage and as more people will read his work, he will be far more scrutinised than I shall ever achieve. I do not receive revenue for my contributions to the subject matter and I do not have the guidance and help of an editor or proof reader. The error committed by Donnelley is, I believe, both minor and yet worthy to be confronted. 
In discussing Harry Ormesher, ‘the only Page 3 photographer to breed a Derby winner’, he mistakenly claims that Blakeney, the Epsom Derby winner in 1969, sire of the dam of Sir Percy (bred by Ormesher) was named after Sir Percy Blakeney, the hero of Baroness Orczy’s 1905 novel ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’. Perhaps the author was displaying his literary knowledge – I could not have named the author of ‘the Scarlet Pimpernel’ or its central character – but Blakeney, as was Morston, Arthur Budgett’s other home-bred Derby winner, named after a village in Norfolk.
Having got that off my chest, I can praise this very useful reference book. Firstly, and all important for sales, it has a pleasant appearance and is tactile to handle. It is also pocket-sized, not that I would carry it around in a pocket as I wouldn’t want to curl the edges of the cover page. It is perhaps more a book to be gift-wrapped and presented to a friend or family member with a casual interest in horse racing, rather than it is a book to be read by someone with an intimate knowledge of the sport, as it is page-to-page filled with interesting facts, which you would expect from the title. ‘A truly wonderful collection of Horse Racing Trivia’, as is claimed on the front cover.
Paul Donnelley, I suggest, is not himself a racing man as he has an almost O.C.D. fascination with the times horses achieved in winning races, a topic that is not given too much coverage in the aftermath of a race unless a course record was achieved. He also repeatedly made reference to how many horses died in Grand Nationals, which grated on me more than a little bit. I wouldn’t expect the author to champion the race but as the remit of the book was firsts, lasts and onlys, surely only the first horse to die in a Grand National should have been worthy of mention.
Paul Donnelley did recognise that Mary Francis was more responsible for her husband’s Dick Francis thrillers than the ex-jockey whose fame as an author far exceeded his fame as the rider of Devon Loch and that Dick wanted his wife’s name to be on the front cover beside his own. Kudos.
He also states that Moifaa, the New Zealand-bred winner of the 1904 Grand National did not survive a shipwreck. Buy the book for explanation.
And finally, some of the racing phraseology used by Donnelley – ‘awarded champion jockey’, rather than won the title, got on my wick - is that of someone with only a passing knowledge of the sport and he might have done well to have had someone with horse racing in their veins to proof-read the manuscript before publication. Though, on reflection, perhaps it was more honest of the author to allow his readers to know the limit of his racing knowledge, after all, authors who write about murder do not necessarily need to have committed murder to pen a good read.  
On This Day:
In 1877, the dynasty of the Aga Khan’s stud and racing organisation was created by the birth of Sir Aga Sultan Muham Shah, the 3rd Aga Khan.
In 1895, Pebbles won her final race, the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Aqueduct. She liked a pint of Guiness in her feed every day, apparently.
In 1989, former Royal trainer, Dick Hern was voted Man of the Year by the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation. 
In 1991 Arazi claimed everlasting fame by winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile by 4-lengths, with ease, a most unlikely outcome at every other stage of the race bar the final furlong.