True Grit
Les Carlyon

Four decades of tales from the turf from Australia's leading writer on history and horses, Les Carlyon.

Every outrage that occurs on any racecourse anywhere can be explained by one line from Damon Runyon- 'Well, it is horse racing.'

Les Carlyon's acclaimed collection of feature stories and vignettes from Australian racing now spans forty years. From Bart Cummings before he was a Cup legend to Colin Hayes and Kerry Packer and Peter Moody and his unbeatable Black Caviar, no one sees the magic and heartbreak in the world of horses and racing with quite the poetry of Les Carlyon.

Les's eye is both sharp and tender, his writing is so vivid you can almost feel the steaming breath of the mighty gallopers on your cheek and he is under no illusions about the reality of this glorious, awful, fortune-making, heart-breaking sport.