New website for horse racing book
A new website dedicated to the book by Stan McCormack is now live and the Kilbeggan historian and author is using it to engage with readers and others interested in the equestrian world.
Stan’s book is ‘Racing through the Midlands – Westmeath and Offaly’ and the website, racingthroughthemidlands.com, includes an outline of the book, stories, a review by Guy Williams, the racing historian and author, a podcast of a radio interview Stan has done, details about purchasing the book and more.
Mr Williams told Stan: “Thoroughly enjoyed your book and wish it deserved sales success.”
In his review he writes: “Mischievously, Stan states that it is his last book. Hopefully he will relent. Moreover, it is not – as Stan modestly insists – a book for dipping into. It’s a goddamn page-turner!”
He continues: “Not content with unearthing the achievements of the horses and humans who brought racing and breeding renown to his native and adjoining counties, Stan McCormack has woven them into such a delightful tissue of stories that the hours slip by as the temptation to turn the pages and read on becomes too beguiling to resist.
“Stan sets out his stall from the start. Racing and breeding in Westmeath and Offaly is linked to some of the greatest horses in history, from Brown Jack, the most popular horse in Britain in the 1930s, bred by the Webb family in Corolanty, Birr, to Arkle, famously beaten in his first ever race in Mullingar.
“No other sport in the midlands can compete with this kind of international success, which solidifies a great tradition going back hundreds of years. The intention in this book is to capture some of the stories, as a representation of a great generation of people in different eras.
“Items of enduring interest... includes one that recounts wily Cecil Ross capturing the coveted Westmeath Hunt Cup – run on the then defunct Mullingar racecourse – with Sunny Chief. The memory remains vivid in this scribe’s mind.
“Whereas Cecil had been riding winners since Old God’s time, his principal rival had yet to open his account. As such he hesitated to go for home at the crucial moment in the race.
“Sensing that indecision, Cecil made his move, surging past on Sunny Chief to ‘steal’ the race, to widespread applause for a local success. Happily, The Jolly Doctor, second once again, went on to make amends at Nenagh and Borrisokane.
“Twelve months later Cecil’s victim in that first encounter, re-opposed, on a swifter, battle-hardened steed, a sometime favourite for the English Cambridgeshire when trained by the legendary Harry Wragg. The Westmeath Hunt Cup represented, as they say, something of a drop in class. So it proved, as Rope Ladder swept to victory, with Cecil this time only second. Revenge was truly sweet!
“The anecdote serves to illustrate the depth and breadth of Stan’s splendid book, the best €20 you’ll spend this year.”