‘DOPED’, an account of one of the biggest doping scandals in British horse racing history, has won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award.
Jamie Reid’s book, described by the judges as “an absolutely thrilling read,” topped a shortlist of six to win the £25,000 prize in London on Wednesday evening.
‘Doped’ tells the story of bookie Bill Roper — dubbed ‘Roper the Doper’ — his beautiful Swiss mistress and an elaborate scheme to fix horse races in the early 1960s.
It is “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,” Graham Sharpe, the award’s co-founder, said.
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Reid, who is the author of several other books and writes a regular column for the Financial Times, was “shocked” by the win.
David Walsh’s ‘Seven Deadly Sins,’ David Epstein’s ‘The Sports Gene’, and Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s autobiography were also shortlisted in the 25th year of the award, which is both the longest established and most valuable literary sportswriting prize in the world.
And the William Hill Sports Book of the Year for 2013 is...
‘DOPED’, an account of one of the biggest doping scandals in British horse racing history, has won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award.
Jamie Reid’s book, described by the judges as “an absolutely thrilling read,” topped a shortlist of six to win the £25,000 prize in London on Wednesday evening.
‘Doped’ tells the story of bookie Bill Roper — dubbed ‘Roper the Doper’ — his beautiful Swiss mistress and an elaborate scheme to fix horse races in the early 1960s.
It is “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,” Graham Sharpe, the award’s co-founder, said.
Reid, who is the author of several other books and writes a regular column for the Financial Times, was “shocked” by the win.
David Walsh’s ‘Seven Deadly Sins,’ David Epstein’s ‘The Sports Gene’, and Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s autobiography were also shortlisted in the 25th year of the award, which is both the longest established and most valuable literary sportswriting prize in the world.
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Awards Season Doped Jamie Reid Sportswriting William Hill