Racing Dream by Suzie Hindmarsh-Knights

Racing Dream was another novel that I recently downloaded on Kindle to read and review. One thing that I liked about this story was that it was based in South Australia, Australia. I’m in Victoria but it was nice to be reading a racing novel that focused around the Australian racing industry. I enjoyed reading about places such as the Morphettville racecourse and sales, where I have personally been and worked within the industry.

Annabel Martin dreams of becoming a jockey and ultimately winning the Melbourne Cup. After all, this is the prize race that all jockeys aim for. As a young lady, she’s a great horse woman, but she comes from a privileged background. Therefore, she is seen as someone who just gets what she wants because daddy pays for everything.

Annabel is really keen to break through this image that’s been portrayed of herself. It is quite untrue.

As she pairs up with a retired jockey, she is rapt to find that he sees talent in her and is keen to invest time in her.  He teaches Annabel the ins and outs of the racing industry – especially riding racehorses.

Racing Dream by Suzie Hindmarsh-Knights

Annabel’s background comes from riding performance horses for the show ring, rather than racehorses. And although she’s a great horse woman, she does find that thoroughbreds and racing are very different, and she has a lot to learn.

Alongside her learning, she’s introduced to James Mackenzie. James is also an aspiring jockey, with his goal the same as Annabel: to win the Melbourne Cup.

Over the years Annabel hones her craft with the help of her ex jockey friend. In time she runs into James again, and an attraction is obvious between the two, but they are rival riders. Both are competing for the same thing with potentially the same horse: to get in the Melbourne Cup.

Racing Dream is a great look at the hard work, skills and a good work ethic that can get you to the top, but not without its challenges. The story has romance in it.  It also has mystery and suspense and features horses heavily. This made it a really great read.

The one thing to me that detracted a little bit from it was a couple of the romantic scenes between the two main characters. I felt that the story could have been a five star rating without this unnecessary physical romance explored and with less cosrse language, but otherwise it was a really enjoyable read.

Author: Suzie Hindmarsh-Knights
Fiction – mystery/suspense
In My Library? As an eBook, it is.