Tales from the track

For me little that is memorable, and even less that is sheer fun, has been penned about football, apart from Gary Lineker’s definition of the game as ‘Twenty-two men chasing a ball — and in the end the Germans win’.

For me little that is memorable, and even less that is sheer fun, has been penned about football, apart from Gary Lineker’s definition of the game as ‘Twenty-two men chasing a ball — and in the end the Germans win’. Horseracing, though, has always attracted both purple prose and anecdotage.

Sea The Stars’ winning of the 2000 Guineas, the Derby, the Coral Eclipse, the Juddmonte International, the Irish Champion and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe has made it a special year for racing books. Most of us will never see as good a horse again and in Sea The Stars: The Story of a Perfect Racehorse (Racing Post, £20) the newspaper’s excellent team have put together a vividly illustrated record every enthusiast will treasure.