two steeplechasers who set the world on fire.

​Hyperbole, no doubt; the parochial world of horse racing rarely these days even flutters the mindset of newspaper and media editors, though the 2008 Cheltenham Gold Cup did gain unusually high coverage in the non-racing daily newspapers. Not as much, I grant you, as the 2010 renewal, the race that did not provide the following day’s predicted and perhaps required headlines. But on the front cover of his book ‘Kauto Star & Denman’ Jonathan Powell was happy to allow his editor to emblazon the strap-line ‘The Epic Story of Two Champions Who Set the Racing World on Fire’. And, of course, in our little world, the world populated by horse racing enthusiasts, Kauto Star and Denman did, even they did not set our worlds literally on fire,  pump up our heart-rates and boost our enthusiasm for National Hunt racing to heights that almost reached the heavens.
Jonathan Powell is a favourite writer of mine and I am pleased to have several of his books on my shelves. His books are thoroughly researched though not to the point of a boastfulness of knowledge and his narrative flows with the confidence of a seasoned and rarely rejected author and when he pens a biography of an equine star he treats them with the same respect as when he writes about a jockey or trainer. If anyone reading this is vain enough (or need of a boost to their flagging finances and has a story to interest others) to want his or her biography published, I suggest there is no better writer for the task than J. Powell.
As with all biographies where the subject matter is not deceased, this lovely book is made far from perfect due an end page that is too distant from the natural conclusion of the tale it tells. It draws its last breath on 19th March 2010, the day Paddy Brennan brilliantly stole the Cheltenham Gold Cup from under the noses of an adoring grandstand of Denman and Kauto Star enthusiasts. The cad! You may contend, as no doubt the author will contend, that this book was in response to the hype around their battles in the Cheltenham Gold Cup and that there are other books that detail their full racing careers. But on the cover page, even if Cheltenham was the only racecourse and the Gold Cup the only race the two great horses competed against one another, there is no mention that the backdrop to the book is Cheltenham and the Gold Cup. Denman’s story did virtually end on that fateful day when Nigel Twiston-Davies, as so often happens, had the last laugh. But Kauto Star continued to both ‘set the world on fire’ and draw tears from our hearts by winning yet another King George and a Betfair and in not documenting two of his most heart-warming victories Jonathan Powell left a yawning chasm of invisible text.
You might say, as I do often, that the best written books leave the reader wanting more, as Ruby Walsh achieved with his autobiography – where, Ruby, is the second volume, by the way? Not that I would have wanted the book to travel so far past his retirement that it went into the unedifying chapter of Kauto’s sad demise far from the home and people whose lives he made glorious. That would have made for the saddest of conclusions. Even Denman last breath , though his demise was from more natural causes, did not want to be included in this book. It is simply in documenting the following season, a season when Kauto reigned alone, with Denman retired and Paul Nicholls facing an onslaught of criticism for keeping Kauto in training, we, the readers, knew that after the final full-stop there was so much more that needed to be included for posterity.
Perhaps Powell was being harried by publishers in want of profit, uncaring of what new heights Kauto might reach. Perhaps Powell would have preferred to have stayed publication in case Kauto achieved the nay-on impossible and won back the Gold Cup for a second time, making three in all and equalling Arkle and the other great steeplechasers of years gone by. But the book is what it is, a beautiful portrait of two of the greatest steeplechasers of all-time, but made ever-so-imperfect by the rays of the sun illuminating what is there, not what we all knew was to come to pass. All the same, despite my damning praise, it is a lovingly constructed telling of a story that should never be lost to the passage of time.
Now, if Jonathan wants a challenge, may I suggest he go back to the time when a trainer last had two equally brilliant steeplechasers in his stable and tell the story of how and why they never met on the racecourse. The story of Arkle and Flyingbolt. A story that needs to be written while the likes of Paddy Woods remain alive to ensure the research is accurate.

Incidentally – the spirit of Christmas is meant to be amongst us, isn’t it – there is a story loosely based on truth about Arkle and Flyingbolt in my book ‘Going To The Last’ – Short Stories About Horse Racing. I recommend it, I really do. I doubt if there is another book like it on the market. Only £8.99. Paperback only. Go google it. You’ll find it on Amazon. You can even tell me what you think of its merits, if you like. I have broad shoulders. The Arkle/Flyingbolt story is on page 55. It’s titled ‘Yes, I Fear He Is, I Fear He Is.’ Explanation of the title will be found at the conclusion of the story. In all there are 25 stories, some based on racing fact, some purely imaginary.