Red Rum

by Ivor Herbert

. 2005, clean copy, no markings, Professional booksellers since 1981

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Biography

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Bred wrong, sold cheap, raced too young," begins the blurb. Red Rum, by Quorum out of Mared, not only developed a fantastic character but at Ginger McCain's stables he ran in five English Grand Nationals, winning three and second twice. The first time, he beat well-backed horse Crisp. His record has never been beaten.

Brian Fletcher was his early partner and later Tommy Stack.

Red Rum led a great celebrity career afterwards, not described in this book, opening fetes, appearing in a racing thriller TV adaptation of a Dick Francis story, and there is a race for young horses at Aintree named after him. Fans used to send Polo mints for him.

Red Rum died aged thirty, on the same day as Kingsley Amis, though I hadn't realised they even knew each other.

[Dark-Draco · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only other book I have read by this author is about Princess Anne and her life on horses, so I was a bit surprised by the slightly different style here. The book charts Red Rum's life from a poorly bred Irish colt with not a good start in life, through his early training and then onto winning his third Grand National. There were a lot of parts I loved and some, not so much. For instance, the gutsy determination of the horse, while a bit anthropomorphised, got me quite emotional, while some of the stories just highlighted what it so wrong with the horse racing industry - running a horse with a cough, that's lame, not rested, etc.

However, the best bits of writing by far were Herbert's descriptions of the races. By using the words of the commentators, mixed with his own prose, he comes damn close to getting across that excitement, speed and power that you experience when stood next to the track. Those chapters made up for some of the slower ones, where endless discussions on jockeys, odds or breeding predominated.

A good bit of racing history that kept me entertained and taught me something new about a horse I knew little about apart from his greatest achievement. And of course, like all these sort of books, one that gives you a cathartic cry at the end!

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did find this book interesting, I knew nothing about Red Rum apart from that he had won the national 3 times. It was interesting to read about how his life went, and what he had originally been bred to do. However, I did find the book hard to get into at the beginning, but please purserver with the book if you want to read about Red Rum.

[Anne Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Red Rum was always an amazing horse with an amazing story, and I've always loved him. He was throughout the 1970s the most unlikely equine champion and all the more endearing for it. Untrained for steeplechasing from the get-go and with a crippling bone disease in his feet, Red Rum nevertheless found his perfect match in untried trainer Ginger McCain, somehow overcame all the obstacles stacked against him through sheer determination and went on to win the Grand National for a record-breaking three times.

This book is his story, and it's a story of triumph over disaster, the possibility of beating all the odds, and becoming a champion after being written off so many times. I always loved watching Red Rum race because he never - ever - gave up, and he just kept on trying, no matter what. It's a lesson for us all. I even met him once at a racing event and saw at first hand just how much of a gentleman he was. A true equine star. This book is a good and comprehensive record of his life and times, and it was a pleasure to get reacquainted with this key part of horse-racing history.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a horse. Superb!