Winner of the £25,000  William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award

DOPED by Jamie Reid

The True Story of the shocking doping gang who scandalised the racing world in the early sixties.

 

Doped tells the true story of Bill ‘Mr Racing’ Roper, a bookie and gambler who helped fund his extravagant lifestyle by doping horses – and how he was brought down after he attempted to nobble a royal horse. It is written like a thriller, packed with  colourful characters such as Edward Teddy Smith aka ‘The Witch Doctor’, who boasted that he had enough drugs to stop a thousand horses.

Hollywood Beckons?

Jamie Reid confirmed that he had already received several approaches for the film rights.

“After tonight we’ll have to tell them that they will cost a bit more now,” he joked after receiving the award.

Reid admitted that he was “thrilled and delighted to win” – but that it came as a little bit of a shock. “I wanted to tell a good story,” he said. “I didn’t want it to be a dry and esoteric racing book.

Graham Sharpe, William Hill spokesman and co-founder of the award, said: “Jamie Reid’s brilliantly constructed book lures the reader into his masterly recreation of late 50s/early 60s England in which social class counted for far more than workplace competence. Nowhere more so than in the historically class-ridden world of horse racing.

“This background, generously scattered with sex and drugs and royalty, is the setting for a perfectly researched, paced and plotted unravelling of probably the most shocking, cynical, sustained attempt to dope – sometimes fatally – innocent racehorses and endanger jockeys for personal gain.”

 William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2013 Shortlist

• Doped: The Real Life Story of the 1960s Racehorse Doping Gang by Jamie Reid (Racing Post). *
• Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit Of Lance Armstrong by David Walsh (Simon & Schuster) *
• I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Lagercrantz and Ruth Urbom (Penguin) *
• The Boys in the Boat: An Epic True-Life Journey to the Heart of Hitler’s Berlin by Daniel James Brown (MacMillan)
• The Sports Gene: What Makes The Perfect Athlete by David Epstein (Yellow Jersey Press)
• Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy: A Journey to the Heart of Cricket’s Underworld by Ed Hawkins (Bloomsbury)

* Coming up on VG Tips, author interviews with Vernon Grant on the evening of the awards.

 

 

On Camera Interviews coming soon to VG TIPS. Vernon Grant with Jamie Reid, David Walsh and David Lagercrantz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[symple_heading type=”h2″ title=”Same as it ever was” margin_top=”10px;” margin_bottom=”2px” text_align=”left”]Ed Hawkins Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy: A Journey to the Heart of Cricket’s Underworld which was shortlisted for the award delves into the murky world of betting on cricket, and it came as no surprise this morning to read about the breaking news on match-fixing in football.

 

NOW YARD HUNTS CROOKED BOOKIES [symple_spacing size=”5px”]Swiss Beauty and Five Men Jailed in Biggest Horse-Doping Scandal [symple_spacing size=”5px”] 31st October, 1963

FOOTBALL MATCH-FIXING [symple_spacing size=”5px”]Six men have been arrested by officers from the National Crime Agency investigating alleged match-fixing in English football. [symple_spacing size=”5px”] 28th November, 2013

[symple_heading type=”h3″ title=”William Hill are offering new customers a £25 free bet when they sign up” margin_top=”2px;” margin_bottom=”5px” text_align=”left”] Interested? Sign up here. I want a Free £25 bet.