FIFTY SHADES OF HAY

This book immediately passed the kitchen-table test. Leaving it unattended, it was snaffled, read, passed on and laughed over before being forcibly retrieved for review purposes. Certainly anyone who has a passing interest in racing will appreciate this title.

David Ashforth writes with engaging amiability and presents a plethora of naming facts and figures. Over 17 chapters the riotous, ridiculous and downright wrong names mix with the regal and mundane. But Ashforth doesn’t just play it for laughs, there is erudition here. Race wins, failures, victories and history follow each chosen name, often accompanied by quotes from novels, songs or poems that bring sense to the moniker.

So giggle at The Happy Hooker and Knobgobbler, wonder at Lady Bamford’s Parsnip, marvel at Frankel and his antecedents and guess how many horses have been called after the characters in Agatha Christie’s thrillers – including the author herself. This book will prove a dead cert.