Author John Carter interviewed and shadowed 14 racing personalities throughout 2007 at Newmarket, the home and headquarters of British horseracing, in a book supported by the racecourse.

His subjects ranged across the racing world, from top jockey Frankie Dettori, who has also written the foreword, in a year he won his first Derby, on the Newmarket trained Authorized, to top female jockey Hayley Turner; from leading trainer Jeremy Noseda, to the clerk of the Newmarket courses Michael Prosser to its former managing director Lisa Hancock, who left to spend more time with her young family.
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John also talked to other members of the racing community such as bloodstock agent Tom Goff and museum curator Graham Snelling; stable girl Danni Deverson and owner Jan Harris.

The book gives a fascinating glimpse into the often secret world of horseracing.

One of the subjects, star photographer Trevor Jones, also supplied the photographs which are featured throughout the book.

You do not have to be a racing nut to find such a community fascinating, and in Newmarket: a year at the home of horseracing, John Carter has provided an excellent portrait of the place.
It helps a lot that the author is not a dedicated racing man, but a fan of sport in general. He latches on to individuals such as the trainer Jeremy Noseda, the jockey Hayley Turner, Tom Goff, a bloodstock agent, and Dutch Art, a laid-back but talented three-year-old colt, and follows the ups and downs of all in the course of a year.
Carter is careful not to get in the way of his characters. As a result, he captures some cracking lines, like this mini-lecture from Frankie Dettori to a group of younger riders before an important race: “If you kill me, I swear to God I’m going to strangle you.”
Andrew Baker, Daily Telegraph

While the travails of Dettori and Noseda et al are interesting, and do contain background detail of interest, it is, for me, when Carter gets behind the scenes with such as Snelling, Newmarket’s clerk of the course Michael Prosser and stable lad Mark O’Reilly that the book really comes alive. Colourfully and atmospherically illustrated by Jones’ photographs it is when Carter digs down beneath the veneer that the world of Newmarket which exists underneath the glamour of the big race meetings and the multi-million dollar sales days begins to surface.
We find out, for example, that the stable lad Mark O’Reilly, working for Peter Chapple-Hyam during the period under review, and an earthy and edgy individual, has a background of real interest and, almost undoubtedly, a story that would make an illuminating book in itself. But it is the suggestion, imbued by Carter, that while unique in itself, O’Reilly’s story is not untypical of the type of life and career many stable lads and lasses may have that begins to form, in our minds, the colour of the town.
The book is the right size, you know the ‘coffee-table’ size, and is satisfactorily solid and well presented. As mentioned earlier the photographs are excellent and are very effective in imparting the colour and character of racing. My favourite photograph in the book though is an old black and white picture from the 1890’s which features a vista of the Rowley Mile, unchanged in the last century and the century before, with, in the foreground, five horses walking across the shot with only the heavy, hooded rugs in which they galloped giving any clue to the date of the image.
www.theracingforum.co.uk

Often the chapters take the form of 'a day in the life of, monitoring each hour of the day with such as Prosser and Newmarket's outgoing managing director Lisa Hancock. As a way of getting the reader to the heart of the action, this approach certainly pays off, especially in the case of Frankie’s Derby ride and owner Jan Harris’s trip to Royal Ascot...
Adding a different and welcome perspective to the story are such subjects as racegoer Stan Singleton, racing photographer Trevor Jones, and the Racing Post's Newmarket correspondent Tony Elves, who takes Carter through a day of gallops-watching and reporting from the Rowley Mile
Andy Bennett, Racing Post

Most of the racegoers at Royal Ascot this week will neither know nor care that it was Queen Anne who initiated horseracing there back in 1711. Fewer still will be aware that the first official race run under written rules was the Town Plate at Newmarket in 1664 (Anne's forebear Charles II won it in 1671 and 1674). Newmarket remains the HQ of English racing, and these facts come from John Carter's affectionate, authoritative look at a year in the town's life through the eyes of 12 individuals. Carter deftly interlinks the 2007 fortunes of a cast including jockey Frankie Dettori and trainer Jeremy Noseda but also less heralded but equally vital characters intimately connected with the town's 3,000 thoroughbreds in training. His words are complemented by the vibrant photographs of one of his subjects, Trevor Jones, and while some of the territory covered will be familiar to the expert, the result is a winner of the highest class.
Simon Redfern, Independent on Sunday