Every Race Is A Short Story Of Its Own

Keith Knight puts down his binoculars and gets out his reading glasses to suggest some Christmas books

- Keith Knight

Damon Runyon, that most quotable of writers when it comes to the dry word on racing or more appropriately gambling, said “I long ago came to the conclusion that all life is 6/5 against”. He also advised “you can become a winner only if you are willing to walk over the edge”.

Runyon is best known perhaps as a writer of racy short stories, depicting life in the underworld of New York, with his collection Guys and Doll attributed immortality when it was adapted for the Broadway stage and later into a film musical starring Frank Sinatra. Although the purist may not care to admit to it, I suspect Runyon portrayed the New York racetracks as they were in his day. Unfortunately succeeding writers when setting their work in the world of horse racing have continued to portray the sport as if in modern times it remains a replica of Runyon’s more lawless era.

Horse racing, I believe, is not well served by fiction, although I doubt if even the greatest of novelists could write a novel, or perhaps a short story, that can do justice to the sport of horse racing as it is today. I would go as far as to say that it is beyond the human imagination to better depict the twists, turns and excitement generated by even the most modest of horse races. There are just too many tendrils of possible scenarios, characters and emotions for any writer to give the reader a true insight into the nature of horse racing.