The Great Racing Read: Claude Beniada

Monsieur X
By Jamie Reid

Subtitled 'An incredible story of the most audacious gambler in history', this book was offered to me by Teddy Grimthorpe, Juddmonte's racing manager, and from page one to the end it is fascinating. It features the rise and fall of Patrice des Moutis, a supremely intelligent engineer and fierce gambler who was supposed to be the brain behind the famous race-fixing coup of the Prix Bride Abattue at Auteuil racecourse.

It is quite surprising that no French writer has ever written this story in detail. To read it told by an Englishman is quite surprising but definitely worth it. Obviously Jamie Reid has done some superb investigative work.

Go deep into French racing in the 1960s with the likes of top French owners, trainers, jockeys, the famous singer Maurice Chevalier, Aly Khan, Rita Hayworth, and the underworld of Gay Pigalle in Paris and in Marseille. Great fun.