In the plethora of books that see print in any given year there are only a handful that will ever make any impact in the world. A good 99.9% will be, ultimately, wastes of time and effort. However, other than those few books that have any literary, historic, cultural, or scientific value, there are simply books that entertain — however briefly — as well as those books that are just plain interesting. Eclipse Press’s 2004 book, Ringers & Rascals, by David Ashforth, is one of those books that belong in the final category.
Is it a book filled with sterling prose? No. Is it a book of great significance? No. But it is a book that tells tales of a side of human life that few people ever think about, and, even though it is told in a very straightforward manner, it does detail the vagaries and humor in lives of corruption in the horse racing industry.
Ashforth is a senior reporter and columnist for the racing publication Racing Post, in Great Britain, and his years of experience serve him well in detailing the top cases of horse race fixing in world history. Reputedly, this book took a decade of research, and Ashforth was motivated because, ‘Skullduggery has always been a part of racing’s rich tapestry, yet relatively little has been written about it. What motivated me was curiosity, wanting to know what really happened.’
And he’s not alone. The truth is that most people prefer reading about the bad guys in any endeavor, rather than those good guys, and the star of Ringers & Rascals is doubtlessly the most prolific, successful, and colorful race fixer of all time: Peter Christian ‘Ringer’ Barrie, a man whose career in race fixing spanned several continents (America, Europe, Australia) and many decades. He was to horse ringing (the art of substituting a loser horse with a winner) what Pablo Picasso was to painting - literally, for the book details his lengthy career almost with awe, as Barrie’s specialty was making horses that were champions look like run of the mill horses so that he could clean up while betting on the ‘long shots’.
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