Wartime racing was unlike other sports. Most
suspended their normal
competitions and held
temporary alternatives with little
significance beyond their
immediate entertainment value, where as racing
remained very much 'the real thing'. While spectator sport was generally welcomed as a diversion for tired workers, many saw racing as a wasteful luxury and there were constant attempts to stop or reduce it. "Insane and Unseemly" is based on extensive, original research into Home Office and Jockey Club papers and first-hand recollections of staff from three leading stables in which twelve winners of wartime Classics were trained.Events on the gallops and race course are described in parallel with the constant but unseen political infighting, all against the backdrop of the current war news. The book describes the false optimism of the Phoney War period, suspension and reinstatement of racing in 1940, the ever-tightening restrictions of 1941/2, the minimal programmes of the later war years, and the beginning of recovery in 1945. It includes descriptions of a day at the wartime races, Home Guard activities in the racing village of Beckhampton, the bombing of New market, bitter anti-racing campaigns in Cheltenham, a glimpse into the murky world of unlicensed racing, and the Jockey Club's equivalent of the Beveridge Report..
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