Stories
set in the world
of horse racing

British horse racing
stories by Richard Laws...

Many thanks for your interest in Richard's stories. Richard has worked in the British racing industry for over twenty years. He started at seventeen years old as a bookies runner before becoming a betting shop manager. After a career in Data and Media Marketing that saw him become a Director of a major data management company, he followed his dream and founded Ownaracehorse Ltd in 2004. Ownaracehorse syndicates up to 20 racehorses a year and is the biggest small share syndication company in the UK. Richard wrote his first novel, The Syndicate Manager, in 2018.

'FIXED' - NEW IN MARCH 2024

Accidentally given eight grand to fix a horse race...
What would you do with it?

Life is passing Holly Grant by. She had dreams of being a journalist. Now in her late twenties, she's a bored office worker. But on her train home Holly has eight thousand pounds drop into her lap, along with a curious note. Does she get off the north-bound train, as normal, and pop the money into the local police station on the way home to her scatter-brained mother, or does she stay on the train until it reaches Newcastle and take the money to someone who might know what the note means and allow you to pursue the mystery further?

PUBLISHED: March 2024
Available now on ebook pre-order

The
Syndicate
Manager

This debut novel was a
bestseller in Amazon's 'Horseracing' category.

The Syndicate Manager follows Ben Ramsden, a syndicate manager who becomes aware that someone is trying to acquire all the shares in his potentially top class racehorse 'The Ghost Machine'. What's worse, it looks like the people behind the plot to wrestle 'The Ghost' from his syndicate will stop at nothing to secure all the shares. One by one, the shares are acquired... Set in Great Britain, the story follows the elation, disappointment, intrigue and thrills of racehorse ownership and reveals a world where the promise of money, recognition and success can prove to be a toxic combination...

PUBLISHED: August 2018

Gimcrack

A young trainer is handed the
chance of a lifetime,
but at what cost?

Richard's second novel concerns a young trainer based in the north who jumps at the chance to train some top-class horses, even though their owner has a rather strange racing objective. But his target race isn't the strangest thing about this owner...

Gimcrack reached Amazon's top five horse racing bestsellers and has remained in the top 50 charts for two years.

PUBLISHED: May 2019

An
Old-Fashioned
Coup

How do you construct
the perfect racing coup in the age of the internet?

Another best-selling racing stoiry, An Old-Fashioned Coup is a tale of bookmakers, owners and trainers. When a rich businessman and owner of racehorses offers Charlie Summer the opportunity to attempt a racing coup, he finds it hard to turn down. On the face of it, it's a tall order, especially in a time where bookmakers refuse to pay out when they believe they have been beaten at their own game.

The story has plenty of twists and turns and remains Richard's most successful book to date.

PUBLISHED: September 2019

A Run For
Your Money

Ever dreamed of choosing &
owning your own
racehorse?

Top rated on Amazon from hundreds of reviewers, Mary Romano and her father dreamed of being racehorse owners. Then with a huge slice of luck at the age of 53, Mary gets her chance and embarks on a search for a trainer and a racehorse.

Richard's fourth book incorporates racehorse ownership, life on a racing yard, a treasure hunt, and family secrets that combine to deliver twists and turns and plenty of suspense.

PUBLISHED: June 2020

The Race Caller

A fast moving thriller
based in Yorkshire
full of twists and turns.

A racecourse commentator becomes embroiled in a plot to defraud thousands of punters across the globe... Released in April 2021, this is a fast-paced thriller with many twists and turns as the main characters are chased across the northern racecourse circuit.

Richard's fifth book takes you on a rollercoaster ride from Ripon racecourse to Pontefract where a family day at the races turns into a matter of life or death.

PUBLISHED: April 2021

A Stable Full
Of Winners

A collection of short stories
on betting, horseracing, and racehorses.

This is a collection of eight horseracing short stories. Each story is set in the world of racing or betting.

Whether its a jockey with a big secret, a trainer with a masterful coup in mind, or a major auction house determined to stop the march of technology, these stories run their race and are winners... The surprises and twists keep coming in these short tales of British betting, racehorses, jockeys, owners, and trainers.

PUBLISHED: May 2022

Causing
Interference

A dying man's wishes start a rush for his money,
and his racehorses...

Sophie Falworth was married for less than a day before her husband ran off with another woman. So when an invitation to meet his wife and distinctly odd family arrives seventeen years later, Sophie quickly disregards the request to meet in Alnwick, Northumberland. However, when it emerges that the invite is actually to the reading of her ex-husband's will, she takes a chance... and is immediately plunged headlong into the world of horseracing. In order to benefit from her husband's millions, she must become a part-owner in a racehorse she shares with people she detests. And if that wasn't bad enough, there are any number of people who seem hell-bent on making sure she fails to see out the flat season... one way or another.

PUBLISHED: Sept 2022

Cheat

The 2002 Ebor Murder
was the victim a CHEAT?...

Will Payne's student idyll is shattered by the arrival of the police and the news that his father, a racehorse trainer, has been seriously injured in a riding incident. Foul play is suspected and Will is their number one suspect. Dragged back to his hometown of Malton in North Yorkshire, Will is forced to take charge of his father's yard, which he soon discovers is on its knees.

However, there is one hope for Will and his father. A filly named Catwalk. She is being prepared for the Albany at Royal Ascot. Will sets out to get the two-year-old to Ascot in one piece. But he soon finds himself embroiled in a twenty-year-old murder that leads to Catwalk's plans being derailed by her flamboyant owner. And as Royal Ascot approaches, Will is haunted by family secrets that threaten to expose him as being the latest in a long line of cheaters...

PUBLISHED: June 2023

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