The word on horses and racing

“And God took a handful of southerly wind, blew his breath over it and created the horse.” – Bedouin legend

“Funny things, horses. Dirty, dangerous, greedy beasts, they get into your blood like a virus, and once you’ve got it there’s no cure.” – UK stable hand Susan Gallier

“There is no better buzz than racing – it gives me a bigger kick than football when I have a winner.” – Ex-footballer Kevin Keegan

“I was more nervous than when I played before 55,000 at Old Trafford.” – Ex-footballer Mick Quinn on sending out his first winner as a trainer

“When a person owns a horse, breeds a horse, works around a horse, bets on a horse … or for any reason just pulls for a horse, that beautiful, intriguing animal becomes an extension of one’s own persona.” – US racehorse owner Cot Campbell

“Four things greater than all things are – women and horses and power and war.” – Author Rudyard Kipling

“If a green creature appeared from outer space and asked me to show it a ‘good day out’, I would, without a moment of hesitation, take it unswervingly to the Newmarket July racecourse.” – British journalist Robert Cooper

“My worst was at the Cheltenham Festival when I fell at the first fence and the one coming behind put his hoof on my face. There were 32 stitches but I rode a winner two days later.” – British jockey and novelist Dick Francis

“A jump jockey has to throw his heart over the fence – and then go over and catch it.” – Dick Francis

“His status brought perks – protection from the Ku Klux Klan for one.” Writer Mark MacKenzie on early 20^th century superstar black jockey Jimmy Winkfield

“I was trying to kill the Cuban son of a bitch.” – Unrepentant US jockey Eddie Aracaro after being banned for colliding with rival Vincent Nordarse in a race.

“Tony McCoy looks between his legs and sees Richard Johnson hard at work.” – British race commentator

“Too much puritanical purging and cleansing and child-proofing, however well intentioned, can seriously damage the allure of horse racing, which depends to some extent on the forbidden-fruit effect, the sense of indulgence in illicit pleasure.” – Anthropologist Kate Fox

“The Derby is a little like your first experience of sex – hectic, strenuous, memorably pleasant and over before you know it.” – Author Bill Bryson

“This feels better than sex.” – late South African mining magnate and thoroughbred owner Graham Beck in the winner’s circle

“It’s a very unusual conversation piece.” – An eBay seller of droppings from 2004 Kentucky Derby winner Smarty Jones, available at $12.50 on the internet

“This Kentucky Derby, whatever it is – a race, an emotion, a turbulence, an explosion – is one of the most beautiful and satisfying things I have ever experienced.” – Novelist John Steinbeck

“If you make it through the streets to the track without being shot at or kidnapped, you get looked after like royalty.” – British jockey Sam Thomas on visiting Turffontein

“The Queen Mother has asked me to write to thank you for your marvellous 100^th birthday present of a unit in Fluffy The Super Horse, which she is delighted to accept.” – 2000 letter from UK Queen Mother’s racing manager accepting 1/80^th share of a filly bought by pubgoers in Queensland, Australia

“The only point in betting is to earn money when you’re skint. I bet because I’m greedy and want to get something for nothing.” – Legendary columnist and boozer Jeffrey Bernard

“On a horse, in a race.” – Jockey Frankie Dettori, when asked how he’d like to die

“There is nothing in racing to compare to that glorious late turn of foot, that magical moment when a horse takes wing and metamorphoses before your eyes into Pegasus. That shocking instant of disbelief has in it the quintessence of sport.” – Journalist Simon Barnes on Dancing Brave’s 1986 Arc victory

“Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them

Printing their proud hooves in the receiving earth;

For ’tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings.” – William Shakespeare

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