Love letter to sport adored by two authors

Sixty Years of Jump Racing by Robin Oakley with Edward Gillespie
£25, published by Bloomsbury – bloomsbury.com

A book about jump racing is not a new concept. This particular book on jump racing does, however, feel different. It also feels better than many of those that have gone before. It is a very fine book indeed.

For a start, it has a clear beginning, with the sport intentionally tackled from the 1960s, on the basis that so much happened and changed in that decade, not least Arkle and the legalisation of betting shops. From that neat starting point, the near 300-page volume progresses in an informative and entertaining way.