BEST Racehorses of 2024, the fifth edition of the Irish-authored series that has been filling the gap left by the demise of Timeform’s much-loved Racehorses annuals, went straight in at number one in the Essays & Sports Journalism category on Amazon when it launched last month.

Since then, it has topped several rankings on that company’s sites, including the Horse Racing category, with past reviews, in the press and online, hailing the books as “the new racing bible”, “an utterly comprehensive, one-stop resource for devotees of the flat game”, “Flat racing’s finest publication” and “an incredibly valuable addition to the libraries of racing and breeding buffs”.

Each annual contains essays on every European Group 1 winner, the Group 2 winners in Ireland, Britain, and France, plus all the Irish- and British-trained Group 3 scorers, in addition to an array of horses covered in the Others Of Note part. There is also an extensive data section – which includes Germany’s pattern winners too – packed with essential content for breeders, agents, trainers, writers, punters, and others.

Timeform flat editor David Johnson, posting on his personal X account recently, said that “it continues to astound me that Sieglinde McGee continues to produce a publication of this magnitude single-handedly”, encouraging his followers to buy it.

Renowned pedigrees guru Tony Morris has described Best Racehorses as “a veritable tour de force”, with various reviewers over the years also commending the writing and strength of analysis.

The new edition is a different size to the prior ones, coming in at over 500 pages A4, a late decision made during the editing and formatting stage when an unexpected problem arose.

“The content had expanded by too much for the printers to be able to handle,” McGee said. “It would have been over 1,000 pages (828 is the max), so the choice was to slash over 15% on top of what’s usually cut during the editing process or reformat the manuscript.

“It was too late to make such severe edits, but publishing it in A4 this year opens the potential to produce future editions as a hardback, instead of the usual paperback. There’s no hardback print option for the old size.

“The dream would be to make the series part of a much larger full-time project that I’ve wanted to undertake for a very long time, and to be able to include photographs, but financially this is just not possible right now.”

Sieglinde, who started out as a race previewer and sales correspondent for The Sporting Life in 1989, wrote extensively on pedigree analysis and stallion reviews for The Irish Field for more than 20 years.

As with all prior editions, Best Racehorses of 2024 (published by Sleipnir Press) is only available to purchase via its printers, Amazon. It costs €36 on amazon.ie, £30 on amazon.co.uk, and is eligible for free delivery with Amazon Prime.

Web: amazon.ie/dp/1838433155