The Sporting Chance

Mostyn Clitheroe has never placed a bet, never ridden a racehorse, never known the throat-tightening thrill of the Derby. What he does know is his father's disapproval, his strict moral certainties, and the suffocating weight of being the son of a man who sees sport as sin. When Mostyn accompanies his friend Pierce Trelawny to Epsom, he steps into a world of silks and shouted odds, of fortunes won and lost in a thundering final furlong. Old Rory Macphane and his horse Hipponus may actually win this thing, and against all odds, the old sportsman treats the naïve young man with unexpected kindness. But Captain Armitage and his daughter Rada make Mostyn feel every inch the provincial innocent. By day's end, watching the horses thunder past, Mostyn makes a declaration that will shatter his comfortable compromises. He wants in. He wants to win his own Derby. The question is whether he can survive what it will cost him.