''British Racing and Racecourses'' () published in 1971 with a first print run of 10,000,''Mum's the word for this lady racing expert''

Evening Telegraph ''Evening Telegraph'' is a common newspaper name, and may refer to: * ''Evening Telegraph'' (Dundee), Scotland * ''Evening Telegraph'' (Dublin), Ireland, published 1871–1924. * '' Coventry Evening Telegraph'', England, now the ''Coventry Teleg ...

– Tuesday, 16 March 1971 was written by the female equestrian writer,

Marion Rose Halpenny Marion Rose Halpenny is an equestrian writer and horsewoman, born in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, and known as the ''Lincolnshire turf authoress'',Your Chance for some horse trading – Racing by Geoff Ford – Evening Telegraph – Tuesday, 29 January ...

, and was the first book with general all round racecourse information, precise definitions of terms used to describe track surfaces, with plans of all racecourses that had broken completely new ground.''Odd Man Out'' – Gossip of the Day

– Thursday, 18 March 1971

Ground breaking

The book, that was a major five-year project, was at its time, ground breaking,''Racebook author from Lincoln makes it a double''

Lincolnshire Echo The ''Lincolnshire Echo'' is a weekly British regional newspaper for Lincolnshire, whose first edition was on Tuesday 31 January 1893, and is published every Thursday. It is owned by Reach PLC and it is distributed throughout the county. The ...

– Wednesday, 24 March 1971 not only in that it was the first book to have ever been compiled listing all the racecourse of Great Britain along with a plan of each, but that it had been done by a woman on her own, which in the racing world, especially the

Jockey Club The Jockey Club is the largest commercial horse racing organisation in the United Kingdom. It owns 15 of Britain's famous racecourses, including Aintree, Cheltenham, Epsom Downs and both the Rowley Mile and July Course in Newmarket, amo ...

, was still very much male dominated and opposed in many areas to the introduction of women into the sport, let alone writing about it, but it was the first gazetteer of its kind for British racing.

Royal letters

The book was well received by both the

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

and especially the

Queen Mother A queen mother is a former queen, often a queen dowager, who is the mother of the reigning monarch. The term has been used in English since the early 1560s. It arises in hereditary monarchies in Europe and is also used to describe a number of ...

, who both wrote letters expressing their pleasure at receiving copies. The Queen mother's letter showed she had read it and enjoyed it greatly.

The start

The idea for the book came in 1966, when Marion Halpenny was at a race meeting and heard one woman asking another why a certain horse was wearing a nose band, it occurred to her at the time that the majority of people going to meetings knew very little about the details of racing and she thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to put all the information together in a book. So began the task of collecting the necessary information, sifting through it, selecting items and preparing them for the book. She did all this without knowing it would ever be published and was pleasantly surprised when the first publisher she sent the manuscript to accepted it straight away. Though met favourably by the media, who liked the lone woman against the establishment angle, male

chauvinists Chauvinism is the unreasonable belief in the superiority or dominance of one's own group or people, who are seen as strong and virtuous, while others are considered weak, unworthy, or inferior. It can be described as a form of extreme patriotism ...

in the racing world were lukewarm and a series of copy cat books, written by men, were quickly published afterwards. The diagrams of the tracks of the

racecourses A race track (racetrack, racing track or racing circuit) is a facility built for racing of vehicles, athletes, or animals (e.g. horse racing or greyhound racing). A race track also may feature grandstands or concourses. Race tracks are also use ...

, which were an innovation of Marion Halpenny, were also quickly copied by newspapers and other publications and are still often used and seen in publications today. All came from the book British Racing and Racecourses.

References

{{Reflist 1971 non-fiction books Horse racing in Great Britain Non-fiction books about horse racing