Henry Cecil: Trainer of Genius - Softcover

"Scott's achievement has been to explain Cecil's genius and charisma without shying away from the more complex issues. The result is a wonderfully rounded portrait of one of the most endearing figures in British sport." --"Sunday Times" "Scott's tour of Cecil's inner self is as fascinating as it is illuminating." --"Daily Telegraph" "By far the best book on racing I have ever read. It combines a truly extraordinary story, one that no novelist would have dared to submit, with brilliant writing by an author who is almost as knowledgeable about horses and the turf as his subject. It is a just tribute to a man who deserves to be admired beyond even his achievements." --"Spectator"

Updated paperback edition of the racing book of 2013. For more than four decades the elegant, slightly foppish figure of trainer Henry Cecil had been adulated by racing fans. He handled countless top horses - his 25 English Classics include four Derby winners - and won dozens of big races around the world. But his story is far from a chronicle of unbroken success. A sharp downturn in his racing fortunes in the late 1990s was accompanied by all manner of personal trials, including well publicised marital problems and then cancer, but the dogged manner in which he has climbed back to the top was rewarded in 2011 by the presence in his Newmarket yard of the wonder horse Frankel. Based on extensive research and interviews with those closest to Cecil, it is shot through with Brough Scott's unparalleled inside knowledge of the sport. Winner of the Horse Racing Book of the Year at the 2014 British Sports Book Awards.