Review: JOSEPHINE - Racehorse Holiday

Racehorse Holiday is this week's book. It was first published in 1971.

As you can see there are two blurbs, and the first one reads:-

"We waited. The night was full of a thick velvety quite that was not silence. There was just the occasional stamp and scrape from the stable as horses got up or lay down. Time passed very slowly and I began to imagine hunched figures creeping down the shadow by the loose boxes....I had begun to believe in the horse doper again. I watched and my brain grew numb, groaning for sleep. Suddenly the noise began! We grabbed our mallets and ran across the yard..."

The other edition (one with the photographic cover) uses the same blurb, although it has this additional paragraph:-

An exciting mystery develops when Vivien and Jon spend their holidays at a local racing stables.

The story starts with Vivien and Jon being packed off on holiday to a friend of their parents who owns a racing stables. The mother is going to Russia; in older pony books this would be India. Mr Alex Grant, plus his daughters Angela and Katie racing yard is the setting for this book. They arrive at the yard and are given some horses to ride, though they arent racehorses. They are told of a dispute between 2 apprentices. When several horses dont go well there is allegations of a doping plot. 

The dispute continues until there is a kidnapping and a mystery. Without giving too much away, it is solved. 

Although it lacks the schooling techniques of Josephine's earlier books,  there is some racing information woven into the story and you are given a lesson. If you like adventure stories you cant go much wrong with this. I enjoyed it.