Jefferson Hinkley is back in the newest thriller in the Dick Francis
tradition, this time on a special mission to the United States to
investigate a conspiracy involving the biggest horse races in the
country.
Jeff Hinkley, investigator for the British Horseracing Authority, has
been seconded to the US Federal Anti-Corruption in Sports Agency (FACSA)
where he has been asked to find a mole in their organization--an
informant who is passing on confidential information to those under
suspicion in American racing. At the Kentucky Derby, Jeff joins the
FACSA team in a raid on a horse trainer's barn at Churchill Downs, but
the bust is a disaster, and someone ends up dead. Then, on the morning
of the Derby itself, three of the most favored horses in the field fall
sick.
These suspicious events can be no coincidence. In search of answers,
Jeff goes undercover as a groom on the backstretch at Belmont Park
racetrack in New York. But he discovers far more than he was bargaining
for: corrupt individuals who will stop at nothing--including murder--to
capture the most elusive prize in world sport, the Triple Crown.