Audax Minor (1887 - October 8, 1979), the pen name of George F. T. Ryall, was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

writer who worked as the

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...

columnist for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' for 52 years.Reg Lansberry, "The New Yorker's Audax Minor: A Legend Recalled," ''Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred'', November 2006. Born in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Ryall was sent to England to be educated in 1900. In England, he began working as a general reporter for the newspaper '' London Exchange-Telegraph'' and began writing racing reports from England for ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 to 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers as a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publisher Jo ...

''. Ryall afterwards went to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, and his first column for ''The New Yorker'' was published on July 10, 1926. ''The New Yorker'' had been launched on February 21, 1925. Ryall chose a

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

because at the time he was still writing for ''New York World''; he used this name in honor of Audax, the nom de plume of British racing journalist

Arthur Fitzhardinge Berkeley Portman Arthur is a masculine given name of uncertain etymology. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Ital ...

. (Ryall's full name was George Francis Trafford Ryall. His son, a horse-racing photographer, and grandson, an art photographer, both received the same name, designated as generations II and III.) His column, "The Race Track," ran in The New Yorker, where he wrote from 1926 to 1978, a 52-year record of seniority at the magazine that was later eclipsed by

Roger Angell Roger Angell (September 19, 1920 – May 20, 2022) was an American essayist known for his writing on sports, especially baseball. He was a regular contributor to ''The New Yorker'' and was its chief fiction editor for many years. He wrote nume ...

, who wrote for The New Yorker from 1944 until his death in 2022 at the age 101, and by

John McPhee John Angus McPhee (born March 8, 1931) is an American author. He is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. He is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category General Nonfiction, and he won that award on the fourt ...

, who has written for the magazine for 60 years, beginning in 1963. Ryall wrote on various aspects of horse racing, from starting barriers to horse training, from the

Saratoga Special Stakes The Saratoga Special Stakes is an American grade II thoroughbred horse race run annually in mid-August at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. The race is for two-year-olds willing to race six furlongs on the dirt. With its first ru ...

to the names given horses. "Being one of those peevish fellows who believe that every horse deserves a good name (and you'll find that, on the whole, the better racers are well named)," Ryall wrote in 1960, "I'm sorry to say this year's crop of two-year-olds has fared pretty badly... Ambiopoise... Nassue... Rulamyth..." He also wrote for '' PM'', ''

The Blood-Horse ''The Blood-Horse'' (also referred to simply as ''Blood-Horse'' and displayed on its nameplate in upright all-capital letters without hyphenation as BLOODHORSE) is a news magazine that originated in 1916 as a monthly bulletin of the Thoroughbred ...

'', '' Town & Country'', '' The Sportsman'', ''

Polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...

'', and '' Country Life''. Ryall won the Walter Haight Award in 1972. Ryall also wrote on automobiles,

polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...

and men's fashions.Milestones, Times Oct. 22, 197

/ref> He died at

Columbia, Maryland Columbia is a planned community in Howard County, Maryland, United States, consisting of 10 self-contained villages. With a population of 104,681 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the second-most-populous community in Maryland ...

. His

obituary An obituary (wikt:obit#Etymology 2, obit for short) is an Article (publishing), article about a recently death, deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as Article (publishing), news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on p ...

in ''

Time magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...

'' described him as a "jaunty, tweedy Canadian." In 2013, Ryall was posthumously selected to the

National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York, to honor the achievements of American thoroughbred horse racing, Thoroughbred race horses, jockeys, and Horse trainer, trainers. In 1955, the museum ...

's Joe Hirsch Media Roll of Honor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Minor, Audax The New Yorker staff writers 1887 births 1979 deaths Writers from Toronto Horse racing writers Canadian sportswriters Canadian expatriates in the United Kingdom Canadian expatriates in the United States