Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Mr. Darley’s Arabian
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): McGrath, Chris
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: England
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY:
https://www.hodder.co.uk/books/detail.page?isbn=9781848549838 * http://pegasusbooks.com/books/mr-darleys-arabian-9781681773384-hardcover * https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/26/mr-darleys-arabian-by-christopher-mcgrath-review-a-racy-gallop
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2017051970
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/no2017051970
HEADING: McGrath, Christopher
000 00748nz a2200193n 450
001 10434511
005 20170425073552.0
008 170424n| azannaabn |n aaa c
010 __ |a no2017051970
035 __ |a (OCoLC)oca10779821
040 __ |a ICrlF |b eng |e rda |c ICrlF
100 1_ |a McGrath, Christopher
370 __ |c England |2 naf
372 __ |a Sports journalism |a Racing |2 lcsh
374 __ |a Sportswriters |a Journalists |2 lcsh
375 __ |a Men |2 lcsh
377 __ |a eng
675 __ |a VIAF, Apr. 21, 2017
670 __ |a McGrath, Christopher. Mr. Darley’s Arabian, 2017: |b title page (Christopher McGrath) dust jacket (Christopher McGrath has won multiple awards as a racing correspondent with the Independent ; has been voted Racing Journalist of the Year ; lives in England)
PERSONAL
Male.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Sportswriter for various publications, including Independent (London, England).
AWARDS:Racing Journalist of the Year. commendation as Specialist Correspondent at U.K. Sports Journalism Awards.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Christopher McGrath tells the true story of a legendary horse and his many notable descendants in Mr. Darley’s Arabian: High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses. Ninety-five percent of the world’s thoroughbreds are descended from the Arabian horse of the title, and over the years have included many champion racehorses, such as Northern Dancer, Sadler’s Wells, Galileo, Nearco, Flying Childers, Eclipse, and Frankel. McGrath profiles the twenty-five generations of horses whose lineage can be traced to the Darley Arabian, who was bought by English merchant Thomas Darley from Bedouin tribesmen in Syria in 1704. The horse was known in Arabic as Ras el Fedowi, which translates to “the headstrong one”; any other name he may have had remains unknown. Darley arranged for the horse’s shipment to his family’s estate in England but did not end up accompanying him, having died in a fall from another horse. Once the Arabian stallion arrived at the Darley estate, Aldby Park in Yorkshire, he began siring the offspring that would build his reputation; however, he never raced. In recounting the history of the Darley Arabian and his descendants, McGrath also writes about the humans of the racing world—jockeys, trainers (who often treated horses inhumanely), gamblers, and breeders. Horse racing attracted many wealthy and powerful people, including Queen Victoria’s eldest son, Bertie, who would become King Edward VII.
Several critics considered the book enlightening and entertaining. From the Darley Arabian “sprang not just extraordinary horses but a rich seam of cultural history, and Chris McGrath has woven the two into a fascinating book,” related Melanie Reid in the London Times. She added: “McGrath’s book is erudite, his style wry and his descriptions of horses and men astute.” Jon Culley, writing at the Web-based Sports Bookshelf, noted that crafting a history of horse racing “with the lineage of the Darley Arabian as its central thread” is “a simple idea” but “one that works admirably.” In addition to the horses featured, “there is an enormous cast of human characters, too, from rogues to Royals (which some falling into both categories), from which McGrath draws some wonderfully engaging tales,” Culley observed. At the online Racing Forum, David Cormack, called Mr. Darley’s Arabian “clearly a labour of love on McGrath’s par,” explaining: “You can tell he relishes the history of the sport and the stories it has harboured through the centuries. His enthusiasm is infectious and it isn’t long before you’re drawn into this journey through racing’s history.” Guardian contributor Nicholas Clee, however, found that “McGrath’s enthusiasm can run away with him. He introduces us to one story and diverts to another, and then a further; by the time you get back to the first, you are unsure of the principal thread.” Clee nonetheless offered praise, saying: “Indulge McGrath as he goes his various ways … and you find a great deal to inform and entertain.”
Another positive review came from Booklist critic Connie Fletcher, who termed Mr. Darley’s Arabian a “fascinating equine, social, and political history” and a “stunner of a book, deserving of an audience much beyond horse-racing fans.” In Spectator, Robin Oakley provided a similar assessment, noting that the book will not only appeal to racing fans but “will be read by a much wider public for its lively social history.” Oakley further commented: “McGrath has produced a racing book like no other–a book of remarkable scope.” Bookbag online contributor Sue Magee added: “Mr. Darley’s Arabian is a brilliant read—I finished it rather more quickly than I was expecting because I fell prey to ‘just one more horse’ syndrome.” Cormack concluded: “I’m sure as the years pass it’ll be earmarked for a place in any racing fan’s ‘must-read’ list and I thoroughly recommend it.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, February 1, 2017, Connie Fletcher, review of Mr. Darley’s Arabian: High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses, p. 10.
Guardian (Manchester, England), June 26, 2016, Nicholas Clee, review of Mr. Darley’s Arabian.
Publishers Weekly, November 21, 2016, review of Mr. Darley’s Arabian, p. 99.
Spectator, June 11, 2016, Robin Oakley, “The Sport of Kings,” p. 37.
Times (London, England), June 11, 2016, Melanie Reid, review of Mr Darley’s Arabian.
ONLINE
Bookbag, http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/ (September 4, 2017), Sue Magee, review of Mr Darley’s Arabian.
Pegasus Books Web site, http://pegasusbooks.com/ (September 4, 2017), brief biography.
Racing Forum, http://theracingforum.co.uk/ (August 21, 2016),David Cormack, review of Mr. Darley’s Arabian.
Sports Bookshelf, http://www.thesportsbookshelf.com/ (November 21, 2016), Jon Culley, review of Mr. Darley’s Arabian.*
Christopher McGrath has won multiple awards as a racing correspondent, for seven years with the Independent (London). He has been voted Racing Journalist of the Year and commended as Specialist Correspondent at the UK Sports Journalism Awards. He has interviewed many leading figures on the international Turf, and also contributes a regular column on other sports. This is his first book. He lives in England.
Quoted in Sidelights: “fascinating equine, social, and political history” “stunner of a book, deserving of an audience much beyond horse-racing fans.”
8/8/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1502247755343 1/4
Print Marked Items
Mr. Darley's Arabian: High Life, Low Life,
Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses
Connie Fletcher
Booklist.
113.11 (Feb. 1, 2017): p10.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
* Mr. Darley's Arabian: High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses.
By Christopher McGrath.
Mar. 2017. 448p. illus. Pegasus, $27.95 (9781681773384). 798.4.
This fascinating equine, social, and political history by one of the UK's foremost horseracing journalists takes as its
starting point the fact that 95 percent of all Thoroughbreds are descended from one of just three stallions: the
Godolphin Arabian, the Byerley Turk, and the Darley Arabian, the last of which has become the predominant bloodline
for about the last century. Thomas Darley, a failing British merchant, bought the colt (born in 1700) from Bedouin
tribesmen in Aleppo (then a trading hub) and arranged for its perilous transport back to England. A timeline at the front
of the book gives the birth date of each Darley-descended Thoroughbred, 25 in all, from the original through superstars
like Northern Dancer and Frankel. But this isn't just a book about horse lineage. The wonder of it is how McGrath
manages to use the bloodline to trace so much else. Racing has brought and continues to bring together the whole
panoply of British society, from the grooms, trainers, jockeys, and bookmakers through aristocrats (many, in McGrath's
telling, spoiled and depraved) and royals. "All human life is here," says McGrath of the racetrack. This assertion is the
soul of his book, organized according to the 25 Darley descendants and the human crowds around them, providing
engrossing details about both. A stunner of a book, deserving of an audience much beyond horse-racing fans. --Connie
Fletcher
Fletcher, Connie
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Fletcher, Connie. "Mr. Darley's Arabian: High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses."
Booklist, 1 Feb. 2017, p. 10. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA481244710&it=r&asid=0f276c8c8c09f36f53de44603f08cf85.
Accessed 8 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A481244710
8/8/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1502247755343 2/4
Mr. Darley's Arabian--High Life, Low Life,
Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses
Publishers Weekly.
263.47 (Nov. 21, 2016): p99.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Mr. Darley's Arabian--High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses
Chris McGrath. Pegasus, $27.95 (448p) ISBN 978-1-68177-338-4
The Darley Arabian unites "the lineage of nineteen out of twenty thoroughbreds lining up for any race, anywhere in the
world," writes veteran horse racing reporter McGrath in this frustrating book. In the family tree of horse racing, the
Darley Arabian is basically the trunk, McGrath details 25 of the branches sprouting from this almost mythical horse--
which, ironically, never raced--beginning from to its birth in 1700. This leads to tales of debauchery by horse owners,
noblemen, and racetrack principals; and the development of more humane training methods for horses to a "numbers
game." Telling a story of this massive scope is an ambitious undertaking, and McGrath fails to achieve it. His devotion
to side characters and their turbulent stories, though entertaining, often takes readers off course. The commitment to
research's nooks and crannies is so complete that McGrath casts his work more as a reference book than an intriguing
example of narrative nonfiction. Devoted subjects of the sport of kings will adore the historical diversions; others may
feel overwhelmed. Color and b&w illus. (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Mr. Darley's Arabian--High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses." Publishers Weekly, 21
Nov. 2016, p. 99. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA471273991&it=r&asid=3713f40a1310d2ea391894fc1f04b770.
Accessed 8 Aug. 2017.
Quoted in Sidelights: “will be read by a much wider public for its lively social history.” “McGrath has produced a racing book like no other–a book of remarkable scope.”
Gale Document Number: GALE|A471273991
8/8/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1502247755343 3/4
The sport of kings
Robin Oakley
Spectator.
331.9798 (June 11, 2016): p37.
COPYRIGHT 2016 The Spectator Ltd. (UK)
http://www.spectator.co.uk
Full Text:
Mr Darley's Arabian: A History of Racing in 25 Exceptional Horses
by Christopher McGrath
John Murray, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 448, ISBN 9781848549838
Queen Victoria disapproved heartily of the racing set and of her son Bertie's involvement in the sport. But she must
have noted a dinner conversation with Bismarck reported to her by Disraeli. The German Chancellor had asked if
racing was still encouraged in England. Never more so, said Disraeli, to which Bismarck responded:
There will never be socialism in England. You
are safe so long as the people are devoted to
racing. Here a gentleman cannot ride down the
street without 20 persons saying to each other,
'Why has that fellow a horse and I have not
one?' In England the more horses a nobleman
has, the more popular he is.
The Queen despaired of the future Edward VII as he ruled London society, eating, drinking and gambling, as well as
bedding other men's wives and a series of mistresses. She implored him regularly to turn his back on sporting
tearaways. One day at Ascot, after Bertie's involvement in a libel suit following an illegal baccarat game in which he
had been banker, there were catcalls when he arrived at the racecourse. The growing middle class took exception to his
philandering. And it was typical of his chosen priorities that when, as heir to an imperial throne, and uncle to both the
Tsar and the Kaiser, he was invited to the opening of the Kiel Canal linking the Baltic and North Sea, he asked for the
ceremony to be postponed because it clashed with Royal Ascot.
Christopher McGrath argues convincingly, however, that, over time, Bertie's racing career established a public
confidence in his credentials as a future king, charting progress to the point where 'his racehorses were no longer mere
agents of rebellion: they had opened an artery of public affection long clotted by his mother'. In his lowbrow
imperfections his future subjects came to find the warmth and humanity they had missed in Queen Victoria.
If racing boosted Bertie's popularity, then he returned the service. Leopold Rothschild argued that Bertie did 'much to
remove the impression that racing cannot be conducted in a healthy manner in the spirit of pure sport'. On Bertie's
death the Sporting Life noted:
Within living memory the term 'a racing man'
was practically synonymous with that of 'vagabond'
in the minds of the middle classes;
and it is largely due to the late King Edward
that the idea that the racecourse is nothing
more nor less than a sink of iniquity has
been removed from the minds of all but a few
irreconcilables.
There is no shortage of vagabonds in a rich vein of anecdotage across three centuries in Mr Darley's Arabian--
vagabonds who include much of the aristocracy and a sprinkling of prime ministers. A trainer wins a court case
prosecuting his jockey for not losing a race as he had instructed. A duellist steps back after his opponent arrives with a
8/8/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1502247755343 4/4
coffin bearing his name plate. Aristocrats paid ten guineas for portraits of their wives, and 50 for portraits of their
horses.
McGrath's theme derives from the fact that anywhere in the world, from the Melbourne Cup to the Kentucky Derby, 19
out of any 20 competitors are linked in 'male tail' ancestry to the Darley Arabian, perilously imported to Yorkshire
from the Syrian desert in 1704. But in ingeniously threading the stories of 23 other horses in the chain from the Darley
Arabian to Frankel, McGrath has produced a racing book like no other--a book of remarkable scope.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
For the horseman the racing careers of great horses like Eclipse, the curiously named Pot8os, Nearco and Northern
Dancer are there. So are the hideous training methods used in the past, the six-or eight-mile hamster-wheel workouts in
rugs and blankets, followed by more trussing and sweating back in the stables, the deliberate dehydration, the halfgallon
weekly bloodletting, the savagery used to break a horse's will until at last English handlers took a lesson from
the Arabs and began to win co-operation from their charges with gentleness. Here, too, are stories like those of Tod
Sloan, the cocky American jockey whose 'monkey-on-the-stick' riding style up the horse's neck revolutionised racing
in Britain.
But McGrath's book will be read by a much wider public for its lively social history. Every age has had its symbols of
luxury with which the successful or the lucky like to parade their wealth. Today perhaps it is yachts or football clubs.
Owning a stable of good horses, like the regimental commissions or seats in Parliament which also could be bought,
was often a chosen step on the way to a position in society or public popularity. One era was dominated by the great
landowners, until the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. Next, studs and stables were bought by coal and steel industrial
barons like Glasgow's James Merry. As McGrath writes:
Finally, after the first world war, a global market
economy divided its rewards between
professional breeders and the international
plutocrats who could afford to buy into their
expertise.
Hence Coolmore and Frankel's owner, Prince Khalid Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Oakley, Robin. "The sport of kings." Spectator, 11 June 2016, p. 37+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA454704047&it=r&asid=663ba90075c12375c55ac0a87cf5850c.
Accessed 8 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A454704047
Quoted in Sidelights: “McGrath’s enthusiasm can run away with him. He introduces us to one story and diverts to another, and then a further; by the time you get back to the first, you are unsure of the principal thread.” “Indulge McGrath as he goes his various ways … and you find a great deal to inform and entertain.”
Mr Darley’s Arabian by Christopher McGrath review – a racy gallop
The original Darley Arab stallion is responsible for generations of Derby winners – not to mention a host of colourful stories about racing folk
Pat Smullen on Harzand
Pat Smullen rides Harzand to victory in the 2016 Derby. The horse’s bloodline goes all the way back to Thomas Darley’s 18th-century Arab bay. Photograph: Henry Browne/Reuters
View more sharing options
Shares
7
Comments
3
Nicholas Clee
Sunday 26 June 2016 03.00 EDT Last modified on Tuesday 2 May 2017 13.45 EDT
As Harzand passed the post as winner of this year’s Derby, he would have reminded many horse racing fans of his father, Sea the Stars, who took the same race during an all-conquering campaign in 2009. If you go back further along this male line you will eventually get to Eclipse, probably the most famous horse in the history of the sport; and beyond him, by a further three generations, to the Darley Arabian, one of only three stallions – and by far the dominant one – whose male lines endure in the thoroughbred. In no other sport is history so present. But the history is not merely a matter of genealogical interest. The names on this family tree are associated with royals, politicians, plutocrats, adventurers, scoundrels, rakes, dreamers, gamblers; they have fulfilled dreams, made fortunes, and brought ruin. Christopher McGrath offers a teeming, colourful survey of these many stories.
Sign up for the Bookmarks email
Read more
McGrath opens at the end of another modern branch of the Darley Arabian line, with an account of a devastating performance by Frankel, the best horse many of us have seen. From there he takes us back 23 generations, to the turn of the 18th century in Aleppo, where a Levant Company trader called Thomas Darley buys a bay Arab stallion and ships it back to the family estate in Yorkshire. McGrath is at his best here, conveying the precarious and sequestered lives of the English merchants in their bolted compound, the delicate business of negotiating with Bedouin breeders, and the suffering on the voyage of a noble creature suspended in a hammock in an airless hold.
Elsewhere, McGrath’s enthusiasm can run away with him. He introduces us to one story and diverts to another, and then a further; by the time you get back to the first, you are unsure of the principal thread. You may be confronted with a bewildering number of names: “The Duchess of Montrose had just decided to quit the Turf and Lambton suggested that Stanley recruit her groom, John Griffiths, who had supervised Stockwell for Richard Naylor at Hooton.” And the images conjured by McGrath’s figurative phrases do not always aid understanding: “there is a strong case for identifying as sire of the century a sprint handicapper who picked his way modestly across the few duckboards permitted him through the first world war”.
Indulge McGrath as he goes his various ways, though, and you find a great deal to inform and entertain. He is particularly observant of the monomania the turf can engender: the obsession that led a future king to explain that his mistresses were his “hacks” while his wife was his “brood mare”, and to request that the opening of the Kiel canal be delayed until after Ascot; and that led a future prime minister to write, on being sent down from Oxford: “Dear Mother, I have left Oxford. I have secured a house in Berkeley Square; and I have bought a horse to win the Derby. Your affectionate Archie.”
Mr Darley’s Arabian is published by John Murray (£25). Click here to buy it for £20
Quoted in Sidelights: “clearly a labour of love on McGrath’s par,” “You can tell he relishes the history of the sport and the stories it has harboured through the centuries. His enthusiasm is infectious and it isn’t long before you’re drawn into this journey through racing’s history.”
“I’m sure as the years pass it’ll be earmarked for a place in any racing fan’s ‘must-read’ list and I thoroughly recommend it.”
Book review – Mr Darley’s Arabian by Christopher McGrath
This entry was posted in Racing Articles on August 21, 2016 by cormack15
MRDAR-2T
Book review – Mr Darley’s Arabian by Christopher McGrath
The premise of Christopher McGrath’s book Mr Darley’s Arabian is quite simple, but inspired. Through the twenty five generations that comprise the male line of the pedigree of that greatest of all modern racehorses, the mighty Frankel, it tells the story of each of the horses who link the Darley Arabian, one of three founding stallions of the thoroughbred breed, to Khaled Abdullah’s great champion.
In doing so it also sets out to tell the history of the sport of racing itself, the events and the people that have defined it through three centuries.
The first thing that is apparent is that the book has been meticulously researched. It is rich in detail and that detail continues relentlessly throughout the entirety of the book. This renders it a read that requires attention but it manages to hold that attention as it races through three hundred years at a fast gallop.
Along the journey we meet most of the great characters who have graced the turf. Some will already be familiar to anyone with a passing knowledge of racing history. About those we are already familiar with we learn more through a series of little snippets (Sir Henry Cecil’s ironic purchase of a skull emblazoned tie on a trip to Dubai during his final winter says so much about Sir Henry’s sense of humour and sense of style, for example) as McGrath’s research adds additional touches, colours and highlights to already familiar portraits.
But we also meet many equine and human characters we may not be as familiar with, men of dubious morality, men for whom the horse was merely a vehicle through which the accumulation of wealth could be realised, often through morally questionable enterprise. We meet royalty, convicts, men of violence and various people of great, and sometimes not so great, character. People who have made the sport what it is today and those who might have destroyed it.
It is clearly a labour of love on McGrath’s part. You can tell he relishes the history of the sport and the stories it has harboured through the centuries. His enthusiasm is infectious and it isn’t long before you’re drawn into this journey through racing’s history. It’s a bit like being taken inside one of those virtual reality simulators and sitting there seeing racing’s three hundred years flash by, you’re thrown around a little here and there but it is thrilling enough and you emerge at the end unscathed and eager for more.
If you are interested in racing’s story, interested in tales of deeds and the stories of those who commit them and, indeed, interested in Frankel himself, then you’ll find this an invigorating and essential read. I’m sure as the years pass it’ll be earmarked for a place in any racing fan's ‘must-read’ list and I thoroughly recommend it.
Reviewer – David Cormack
Available from Racing Post bookshop online here
Quoted in Sidelights: “Mr. Darley’s Arabian is a brilliant read—I finished it rather more quickly than I was expecting because I fell prey to ‘just one more horse’ syndrome.”
Reviewer: Sue Magee
All thoroughbred racehorses are descended from one of just three stallions which came to England about three hundred years ago; The Byerley Turk, The Darley Arabian and The Godolphin Arabian. The last century or so has seen a decline in the lines from the first and last of these stallions, to the extent that some 95% of all thoroughbreds worldwide - not just in England - are descended from The Darley Arabian, which was originally bought in Aleppo from Bedouin tribesmen and shipped to Yorkshire in 1704, by Thomas Darley, who died, in difficult financial circumstances before he could follow his horse home.
We look at the lives and careers of twenty-five horses descended from the Darley Arabian (what was his name I wonder, what was he called in the stable?) and it's a fascinating thread to follow. The thought of following a bloodline through twenty-five horses might sound rather dull, but the book is anything but as Christopher McGrath neatly ties in the characters who've populated racing over the last three hundred plus years with the horses who made it all possible. It was fascinating to see the development of the sport beginning with the gruelling races, each often many miles long and run in heats and usually only entered by animals who were six years old or more. These changed to shorter races, some as little as a few furlongs and not that many that are well over a mile which catered for horses as young as two and the breeding of the animal became more important in consequence.
It's social history looked at through the magnifying glass of the sport as we see the men and occasionally women (it's predominantly men until very recently) who were involved. In the early years - until the second half of the nineteenth century - the sport's reputation was bad and largely deservedly so, which was why Queen Victoria despaired of the interest her eldest son showed in the turf, but it was Bertie's involvement then and later when he became King Edward VII which gave the sport an aura of respectability. McGrath doesn't restrict himself to the high and mighty - we meet the trainers, the jockeys and the owners and not just in England. His research has stretched to Europe, Argentina and America.
But what of the horses you'll be wondering. Some you'll be familiar with. Eclipse surprised me by being from the late eighteenth century: somehow he's always seemed so much more of the present. I knew of Flying Childers but was surprised to find that it was Bleeding Childers who was the notable sire. Other stallions played a major part in taking the line forward but are not so well known in racing terms - it wasn't unusual for a horse to have little success on the racecourse but to be an outstanding sire. Nevertheless we owe a great deal to Squirt, Pot8os, Waxy, Whalebone and many others who live on only in history - and stud books. Names from the twentieth century are more familiar, beginning with Northern Dancer who I was surprised to find was born in 1961 - he's another horse who seems so much more current. It was then a delightful trip through such favourites as Sadler's Wells, Galileo and finally the inimitable Frankel. I wept - yet again - as I read of the death of the wonderful Sir Henry Cecil.
Mr. Darley's Arabian is a brilliant read - I finished it rather more quickly than I was expecting because I fell prey to 'just one more horse' syndrome. It's a book which gives rather more than you expect too. There's the luxury of an excellent index (increasingly rare even in good books, these days), a glossary which rightly assumes that not everyone is conversant with the language of the stable yard and a timeline which neatly puts the people and horses in context. An excellent bonus was the regular Day at the Races feature which told the story of a particular race, or race meeting. It's excellent stuff.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
If you're interested in the life of Edward VII, Bertie: A Life of Edward VII by Jane Ridley is quite exceptional. For social history through the lens of a particular racing stable we can recommend The Masters of Manton: From Alec Taylor to George Todd by Paul Mathieu.
Quoted in Sidelights: “sprang not just extraordinary horses but a rich seam of cultural history, and Chris McGrath has woven the two into a fascinating book,” “McGrath’s book is erudite, his style wry and his descriptions of horses and men astute.”
BOOK OF THE WEEK
Mr Darley’s Arabian: High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses by Christopher McGrath
Reviewed by Melanie Reid
Melanie Reid
June 11 2016, 12:01am,
The Times
Cruikshank satirises a betting scandal involving the Prince of Wales’s horse in 1791
Cruikshank satirises a betting scandal involving the Prince of Wales’s horse in 1791
BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY
Share
Save
On board HMS Ipswich, however, was a most exotic passenger — the finest of Arabian colts, illegally bought near Aleppo and now concealed in the dark, stuffy hold. His front legs were lifted off the floor by a sling, his hind legs were roped. Even if the ship was not pirated, would this fabulous creature of the desert, with his fine limbs and his instinct for flight, survive the voyage?
Mr Darley’s Arabian not only made it; he helped to shape the world. This was the dominant foundation stallion of the English thoroughbred, a genetic Koh-i-Noor that created the world’s fastest racehorse.
Thomas Darley, Yorkshire gentry working as a trader for the Levant company, did not manage to follow his precious colt home. He died after falling from a horse, possibly returning to Aleppo, thus fulfilling the Arab proverb: “The rider’s grave is always open.”
Other stallions were imported at about the same time. But the Darley Arabian emerged as the pre-eminent bloodline. Mated with good Yorkshire mares, he became the big daddy of them all: his genes, spread down through such legendary stallions as Eclipse, Nearco and Northern Dancer, now command billions in worldwide bloodstock sales; his descendants scoop the top races. Last week’s Epsom Derby winner had him as a direct ancestor, as did the recently retired wonder-horse Frankel, a thoroughbred of such freakish speed that he remains in a league of one.
From that perilous journey 300 years ago, of course, sprang not just extraordinary horses but a rich seam of cultural history, and Chris McGrath has woven the two into a fascinating book. The former racing correspondent for The Independent, a gifted writer, had the cracking idea of trekking down the gene trail from the Darley Arabian to Frankel, setting the story in its social context.
Racing has always been more than a sport, attracting colour, scandal, beauty, aristocracy, villainy and fun in equal measure. Racehorses are like jewels, Their magnetism, McGrath says, has always been weighed against a moral cost, whether in public disorder or private ruin.
Charles II went to gamble, drink and ride in several races. Oddly enough, he won
Even before the Darley Arabian arrived, English racing was established as the sport of nobility and commoners. Today’s royal family behave impeccably at the races; it was not always so. Charles II went to Newmarket twice a year for a marathon of cockfights, gambling, drinking and fornication, riding in several races himself. Funnily enough, he won.
The king’s favourite dukes once set themselves up incognito as landlords of a local pub in an elaborate scheme to seduce the wife of one of its regulars. Another aristocratic turn-on was to persuade “ladies, commonly half-drunk to raise their spirits”, to race horses, riding astride like jockeys while the men bet on which would fall off. As Alexander Pope dismally observed: “Newmarket’s glory rose, as Britain’s fell.”
The Duke of Cumberland, fresh from his butchery of the Highlanders at Culloden, bred the majestic Eclipse from an obscure mare that had come last in her only race. Eclipse, foaled in 1764, was unbeatable, the paradigm for the modern thoroughbred. He was the animal for whom the phrase “and the rest nowhere” was coined by his eventual owner, Dennis O’Kelly, a fraudster, professional gambler and unmarried partner of London’s most celebrated brothel keeper, Charlotte Hayes.
Hayes’s method for procuring girls was to accost nervous middle-class girls arriving off coaches from the shires, offer them a meal, bed and a spiked drink. A client with an expensive taste for virgins would then emerge from the shadows, and afterwards the fallen daughter of a rural parson or doctor would be groomed for life as a gentleman’s pleasure. In the late 1700s, O’Kelly and Hayes infiltrated the aristocratic racing world, pimping his famous stallion and her upmarket girls in a lascivious whirl of betting, gaming, drinking and whoring.
Darley Arabian racehorses became a measure of economic power that reflected changing society. After the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 and the subsequent decline of playboy landowners, ownership of racehorses passed into the hands of the equally disagreeable smoke-stack barons.
The egregious James Merry was the owner of coal mines and steel works in Coatbridge, near Glasgow. He housed his thousands of workers in the worst slums in Europe while routinely betting 500 guineas — somewhere in the region of £50,000 in today’s money — on one of his home-bred birds in a cockfight. Merry became a Conservative MP and sponsored prize fighting; one of his fighters lasted 42 rounds and was offered beer in victory “but no one could find his mouth”.
Frankel, unbeaten in a 14-race careerFrankel, unbeaten in a 14-race career
PA
The Duke of Westminster wanted Merry’s stallion, Doncaster, but could not bear the social contamination of dealing with him. A trainer bought the horse in 1875 for 10,000 guineas — well over £1 million in today’s prices; two weeks later Westminster happily paid him 14,000 guineas for it.
Meanwhile Queen Victoria, appalled by her son Bertie’s love of racing, and the villainy and immorality of gambling, dispersed the Royal stud. The sport sold hope and thrills to the poor, though not always as dramatically as in 1868 when a welsher, a defaulting bookmaker, was stamped to death by the crowd at Alexandra Palace.
Before the railways came, Sheffield working men would walk 18 miles through the night to get a good position on the rails at Doncaster racecourse then walk back again. In the railway age, thousands poured out of London for days at Epsom, got drunk and rioted when they could not get on to trains home.
The Darley Arabian line almost didn’t make it through the chaos of chance, either. His only fertile son Bleeding Childers — who could not raise a gallop without bursting blood vessels in his nose — was mated with a mare called Sister to Old Country Wench. The offspring, foaled in 1732, was called Squirt, which in those days had an even more scatological meaning. Racehorse names were awful: William III had a horse called Stiff Dick; there was also Sweeter When Clothed, Jack Come Tickle Me, Bloody Buttocks and Old Bald Peg.
Further down the line, a Darley Arabian stallion was called Potatoes, until a groom was asked to label his corn bin, and wrote Potoooooooo. The Earl of Abingdon was so amused he condensed it to Pot-8-0s in the stud book.
Squirt got laminitis and was ordered to be shot but was saved by a stable lad who nursed him back to health. Several times the line almost broke. In the 20th century it travelled via Ireland, Italy, then Canada. Such is the randomness of genealogy. “If the Darley Arabian story tells us anything, it is that you are as likely to miss your only chance by a deliberate decision, as seize it by an oversight,” McGrath says.
Significantly, for feminism if nothing else, the genetic link to Frankel survived on several occasions solely through the female line, and at least three times was bred back in from both sides. This too has interesting implications. The best Arab horses were bred selectively to be mild and domesticated, the sleeping companions of kings. They were physically tough and exquisitely beautiful, but also intelligent and as obedient as dogs. Englishmen in the Orient were fascinated by a land where “the men had no religion; the women no drawers; and the horses no bridles”.
The same does not apply now. The modern thoroughbred has been inbred so many times that it is a creature that lives and races on its nerves. No longer as robust as its ancestors, physically or mentally, it needs specialist handling.
McGrath’s book is erudite, his style wry and his descriptions of horses and men astute. Plainly, he too is in thrall to the timeless magic of racehorses. He quotes Cormac McCarthy: “The clock has run, the horse has run. And which has measured which?”
Mr Darley’s Arabian: High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses by Christopher McGrath, John Murray, 426pp, £25
Quoted in Sidelights: “with the lineage of the Darley Arabian as its central thread” “a simple idea” “one that works admirably.” “there is an enormous cast of human characters, too, from rogues to Royals (which some falling into both categories), from which McGrath draws some wonderfully engaging tales,”
20161121
Will this fast-paced history of horse racing's greatest bloodline turn out to be the 'bookie prize' favourite?
WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016
On the Shortlist
Mr Darley's Arabian: High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses.
By Christopher McGrath (John Murray) £25.00
Review by Jon Culley
Chris McGrath's book covers 300 years of racing history
Chris McGrath's book covers
300 years of racing history
In the early part of the 18th century, when the landscape and politics of the Middle East was rather different from today, a gentleman merchant by the name of Thomas Darley, working for the Levant Company in Aleppo, acquired a horse.
It was a bay colt, taller than the average Arabian horse. In a letter to his brother in 1703, Darley noted that it was strikingly handsome and "with an exceedingly elegant carriage". He bought it for his father, Richard, with plans to take it back to the family's country seat, Aldby Park, not far from the village of Stamford Bridge in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
In some accounts, it has been suggested that Darley came across the animal after reviving his interest in hunting and thereby coming into contact with Bedouin tribesmen but little is known about the precise circumstances in which he acquired it. Hailed for its speed across the ground, it had been given the Arabic name "Ras el Fedowi" - "The Headstrong One".
What is known is that the deal would become arguably the most significant piece of horse trading that ever took place.
Powerful bloodline
Aldby Park in Yorkshire, the country estate that became home to Mr Darley's Arabian
Aldby Park in Yorkshire, the country estate that became
home to Mr Darley's Arabian
The colt was duly shipped to Yorkshire, spending the larger part of an arduous journey suspended in a kind of hammock in the hold of a merchant ship. It was never raced but spent 14 years covering mares at Aldby Park, its genes introducing speed to the traditional strength of the English breeds, and in doing so created the most powerful bloodline in the history of thoroughbred horse racing.
All thoroughbreds, in fact, are descended from just three stallions, all imported to England at around the same time. Ras el Fedowi, who became known as the Darley Arabian, was one. The others were the Godolphin Arabian and the Byerley Turk but the Darley line was so powerful that over time the influence of the other two has dwindled.
Today, according to author Chris McGrath, the lineage of an incredible 95 per cent of the participants in any thoroughbred race, anywhere in the world, "from Royal Ascot to the Melbourne Cup to the Kentucky Derby" will be descended from Mr Darley's Arabian.
It was from this starting point that McGrath, a fine writer who was for a number of years the horse racing correspondent of the Independent newspaper, decided to write a history of the sport with the lineage of the Darley Arabian as its central thread.
Frenetic pace
A simple idea, it is one that works admirably. Beginning with Thomas Darley and Ras el Fedowi and ending with the brilliant Henry Cecil-trained Frankel, winner of the 2011 Two Thousand Guineas and a record nine consecutive Group 1 races, it tracks more than 300 years of horse racing, essentially through the careers of 25 horses but touching upon pretty much every champion in that time.
There is an enormous cast of human characters, too, from rogues to Royals (which some falling into both categories), from which McGrath draws some wonderfully engaging tales, all told at a frenetic pace that compels the reader to turn page after page with scarcely time to draw breath.
The champion racehorse Frankel in action at Doncaster
The champion racehorse Frankel in action at Doncaster
Thoroughly researched and clearly an enormous project, Mr Darley's Arabian perhaps suffers a little for containing perhaps such an enormity of detail and so many stories, taxing the brain's ability to take it all in, although far better to provide too much information than too little.
In any case, there is no law against reading a book twice, or many more times. And one of the joys of a book with such a broad scope is that a second exploration of its pages often finds previously overlooked gems nuggets that make it an even more fulfilling experience.
Mr Darley's Arabian: High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses, by Christopher McGrath (John Murray) £25.00
Buy from Amazon, Waterstones or WH Smith
The winner of the 2016 William Hill Sports Book of the Year award, worth £28,000 to the successful author, will be revealed at an afternoon reception at BAFTA, in central London, on Thursday. There will a poignancy about this year's award ceremony in that it will be the first since John Gaustad, the award's co-founder and proprietor of the much-missed Sportspages book shop in central London, passed away earlier this year.