STUDIES IN Horseracing POPULAR CULTURE and the British 1919–1939 M I K E H U G G I N S Horseracing and the British 1919–39 STUDIES IN POPULAR CULTURE General editor: Professor Jeffrey Richards Already published Railways and culture in Britain Ian Carter Spiritualism and British society between the wars Jenny Hazelgrove Smoking in British popular culture 1800–2000 Matthew Hilton Popular culture in London c.1890–1918: the transformation of entertainment Andrew Horrall Women’s leisure in England 1920–60 Claire Langhamer Scotland and the music hall,1850–1914 Paul Maloney The car in British society:class,gender and motoring 1896–1939 Sean O’Connell Films and British national identity:from Dickens to Dad’s Army Jeffrey Richards The British seaside holiday John K.Walton Horseracing and the British 1919–39 MIKE HUGGINS Manchester University Press Manchester and New York distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave Copyright © Mike Huggins 2003 The right of Mike Huggins to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published byManchester University Press Oxford Road,Manchester M13 9NR,UK andRoom 400,175 Fifth Avenue,New York,NY 10010,USA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave,175 Fifth Avenue,New York, NY 10010,USA Distributed exclusively in Canada by UBCPress,University of British Columbia,2029 West Mall, Vancouver,BC,Canada V6T 1Z2 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for ISBN 0 7190 6528 3 hardback 0 7190 6529 1 paperback First published 2003 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Typeset in Adobe Garamond and Gill Sans by DRBungay Associates,Burghfield,Berks Printed in Great Britain by CPI,Bath STUDIES IN POPULAR CULTURE There has in recent years been an explosion of interest in culture and cultural studies.The impetus has come from two directions and out of two different traditions.On the one hand,cultural history has grown out of social history to become a distinct and identifiable school of historical investigation.On the other hand,cultural studies has grown out of English literature and has concerned itself to a large extent with contemporary issues.Nevertheless,there is a shared project,its aim,to elucidate the meanings and values implicit and explicit in the art,literature, learning,institutions and everyday behaviour within a given society.Both the cultural historian and the cultural studies scholar seek to explore the ways in which a culture is imagined,represented and received,how it interacts with social processes,how it contributes to individual and collective identities and world views,to stability and change,to social,political and economic activities and programmes.This series aims to provide an arena for the cross-fertilisation of the discipline,so that the work of the cultural historian can take advantage of the most useful and illuminating of the theoretical developments and the cultural studies scholars can extend the purely historical underpinnings of their investigations.The ultimate objective of the series is to provide a range of books which will explain in a readable and accessible way where we are now socially and culturally and how we got to where we are.This should enable people to be better informed,promote an interdisciplinary approach to cultural issues and encourage deeper thought about the issues,attitudes and institutions of popular culture. Jeffrey Richards To Jeff Richards,John Walton,Jeff Hill and Jack Williams, for kindly introducing me to the fascinating cultural world of interwar leisure and sport Contents List of tables pagexi General editor’s foreword xiii Preface xv Price conversion index xvii Introduction 1 1 The racing business between the wars 15 2 Horseracing, the media and British leisure culture, 1918–39 41 3 Off-course betting, bookmaking and the British 69 4 Declining opposition to betting on racing 100 5 Racing culture: the racecourse and racecourse life 126 6 Jockeys, trainers and the micro-world of the stable 155 7 Breeders and owners 183 Conclusion 206 Select bibliography 215 Index 225