Steve Cauthen : English Odyssey

A complete study of the American prodigy whose career seemed to be crashing as spectacularly as it had soared until relocating to England redeemed him. His streamlined seat and acute judgement of pace - validated by the innovative sectional timings of the author, a trailblazing advocate of their value to race analysis - inspired others.

Steve Cauthen commenced his 14-year ''English Odyssey'' in April 1979. The erstwhile ''Kentucky Kid'' had taken American racing by storm. A champion jockey at 17 and a Triple Crown winner at 18, the teenage prodigy became a bona fide celebrity but a slump of 110 consecutive losers saw him cross the Atlantic seeking to resurrect his career. Within weeks of his arrival ''The Kid'' won an English Classic, the 2000 Guineas. He''d go on to become the only jockey to win both the Derby and the Kentucky Derby (plus those of Ireland, France and Italy); be the most recent jockey to win an English Triple Crown courtesy of Oh So Sharp in 1985; and secure three jockeys'' championships - making him the only man to win titles in both America and England. Moreover, Cauthen was a supreme stylist who transformed English race-riding: his streamlined American toe-in-the-iron seat and clock-in-the-head judgement of pace sparking widespread imitation. The list of household names benefiting from his sublime talents are legion and this most articulate of jockeys recalls every one of them in his own inimitable style along with all the attendant highs and lows in this first complete retelling of his ''English Odyssey''.