HAVE YOU EVER BEEN STITCHED UP?

Amateur jockey and racing journalist Rod Hutchinson is the victim of a sting – he gets beaten on an odds-on favourite, is convicted of not trying and of accepting a bribe. His amateur licence is withdrawn and he loses his job.

His fight to prove his innocence is continually thwarted by violent attacks – including one where he comes close to being burned alive –and by villains who fear they will be exposed if he resumes writing.

The action moves at as fast a pace as the racehorses Hutchinson so desperately wants to return to riding.

This is Michael Clower’s second racing thriller following Riding For a Fall, ‘a fast-moving action-packed book well up to the standard of his racing biographies’ (Sporting Post). Clower, in the words of the Racing Post ‘a legendary racing writer,’ is also the author of the widely acclaimed:

• Mick Kinane, Big Race King (The Sporting Life’s Racing book of the Year)

• Champion Charlie

• The Legend of Istabraq

• Kings of the Turf

Clower, despite qualifying as a Chartered Accountant (and being placed first in the UK finals), has been a racing journalist for over 50 years. He started in Kenya where he also rode as an amateur against the professionals, winning on three of his first six rides.

He moved to Ireland in 1973 to become a full time racing journalist, starting with The Irish Field. He became Irish correspondent of The Sporting Life and, when that paper closed, he joined the Racing Post and also wrote for The Sunday Times and the Sunday Mirror.

He ‘retired’ to South Africa in 2006 and for ten years wrote for the Cape Times. He was South Africa’s Racing Journalist of the Year in 2016.

Stitched Up, by Michael Clower. Christel Foord Publications. Available on amazon.co.uk in paperback and kindle £8.50

Shoemark Just Up For The Ride

Kieran Shoemark is to take his highestprofile ride for John and Thady Gosden on Oaks winner Soul Sister in the Gr1 Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp on Friday, but John Gosden has dampened rumours about Shoemark taking on the role of retained rider for the Clarehaven team in 2024.

Group 1-winning rider Shoemark rode out the Classic heroine on Warren Hill in Newmarket on Tuesday morning and gets the call-up for Paris in the absence of the suspended Frankie Dettori and with similar bans ruling out top Frenchbased jockeys Christophe Soumillon and Mickael Barzalona.

Speculation has arisen in recent weeks about the riding arrangements for the yard in 2024 with Dettori set to retire at the end of the year.