Johnny falls foul of the biker gang who smash up his bike so he has to revert to a bicycle, but he's not afraid of hard work and his reward is to be given a ride as a steeplechase jockey. 'He'll take two years at grass to put that leg right, and then what will you have? A thirteen-year-old with a dodgy leg.' At that time women were not allowed to hold training licences so the supposed trainer is a man but everyone knows the real trainer is Grannie. The hard realities are early brought home to him when a horse is injured and despite the owners crying 'He's only eleven' the trainer advises them to put him down. He gets the chance to work at Petrock, the steeplechase yard although he knows little about it. But he really likes the nearby racehorses, especially one handsome mare called Dunfermline. Johnny Driscoll is a wild teenager with a motorbike, stencilling a puma onto the tank and racing the other teens. Vian Smith was a racehorse trainer who lived in Dartmoor, and this is the setting for this book.
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