William Nack: the US legend whose evocative words brought the Turf to life

William Nack needed no byline to identify his work. His words were unfailingly attributable to the man who wrote from the heart, whose passion framed his prose, and who could conjure emotion from the simplest of visual images.

Nack’s missives followed suit when he was confronted by something out of the ordinary. A gentle, poetic lilt masked the intensity of his efforts to portray what he had just seen. All his words was chiselled out as if from granite. They are destined to last as long.

His finest work was stimulated by the career of Secretariat, around whom he spent 40 consecutive days as the chestnut ran amok during the 1973 Triple Crown. There was no finer wordsmith to chronicle the back-stage antics of a horse still described in reverential tones.