Racing annual a welcome spring arrival

Press, 20 November 1982, Page 23

Racing annual a welcome spring arrival

Out for its eleventh year, the “D.B. Racing Annual” continues to fill a valuable place in the season-to-season records of New Zealand racing. Its editor, John Costello, has laboured earnestly to supply highlights of the racing year, including the bittersweet story of that rare young talent, McGinty, and his almost crippling injury soon after he had beaten some brilliant contemporaries in Sydney.

There were other sad chapters to come out of the old season; the deaths of Altitude and Powley at the height of their powers. When such heavy blows befall racing at short intervals one is almost tempted to believe the old saw that tragedy seems to stalk only the horses of exceptional talents. The major New Zealand and Australian races are adequately discussed, but a book of this type would be

greatly enhanced in value if more attention was given to family backgrounds of more of those horses that have held us in thrall. Extended pedigrees of the winners of major classics, weight-for-age, and handicap races would add much to the already considerable value of this welcome spring arrival. The “D.B. Racing Annual” is published by Moa Publications, Ltd, and sets a high standard for the quality of its printing and pictorial content—J. J. Boyle.