18 MARCH 1938, Page 36

THOROUGHBRED RACING STOCK By Lady Wentworth

In Thoroughbred Racing Stock Lady Wentworth has written a book which will be of the greatest interest and importance to all students of racehorse breeding. which is unquestionably the most com- plicated branch of all horse-lore. The volume (Allen and Unwin, 63s.) is both a text-book and a history, compiled after very considerable research into subjects apparently far removed from Derby winners, such as numismatics and archae- ology. General readers, too; or at least those for whom the fascination of horse racing is not confined to the fate of their shillings in the two-thirty, will find much to interest them, for the book is full (If little digressions and anecdotes, and de votes a considerable amount of space to the early history of racing. The book is largely a history of the Arab influence on English thoroughbred horse breeding, and as Lady Wentworth 'is one - of the greatest living authorities on Arab hor,es the subject has a worthy author. An admirable collection of photographs and drawings of famous horses is includ. d, and there are many coloured sketches and pen drawings by the author and Lady Blunt throughout the text. Tle appendices contain many pages of use-i1 statistics and data, and a very good ins': adds to the value of this work as a

of reference.