"Admiral met the fence perfectly. He rose to it as if flight were not only for birds. And he fell."

Alan York's friend, Major Bill Davidson, was riding Admiral; he was taken to hospital in serious condition.

York returned to the fence where Admiral fell. He found wire that had been stretched across the track, two feet above the fence.

Davidson died in hospital that evening.

York discovered that a fleet of radio-equipped taxis from Brighton were involved, not only in fixing races, but also in a protection racket.

But who was behind the ‘Marconicars’?

Alan York, 24, is single, from Southern Rhodesia. Besides being an amateur steeplechase jockey who owns his own horses, York is his father's representative at his trading company's London office.

"My son is Sherlock Holmes reincarnated, didn't you know?" he said. "After he went to England I had to employ a detective to do the work he used to do in connexion with frauds and swindles."

An incomplete list of characters and places from "Dead Cert":

• Alan York
• Major Bill Davidson
• Scilla Davidson, Bill Davidson's wife
• Mrs. Mervyn, owner of the horse Alan York was riding when Bill Davidson was killed
• Kate Ellery-Penn, owner
• George Penn, Kate's uncle
• Deb Penn, Kate's Auntie Deb
• Pete Gregory, trainer
• Clem, jockeys' valet
• Sandy Mason, "...a jockey, a professional, he was not among the top dozen, but he had a good deal of success, mainly owing to his fighting spirit."
• Thomas Cook, phony name given by one of the ungodly, hired as an attendant at the fence where Davidson was killed
• John Russell, member of the St John Amublance Brigade, stationed at the fence after the one where Davidson fell
• Mr J.L. Dace, Clerk of the Course of Maidenhead racecourse
• Sir Creswell Stampe, Senior Steward of the National Hunt Committee

• Horses
  • Admiral

• Places

  Maidenhead

  location of racecourse where Bill Davidson was killed

  Bulawayo

  where Alan York went to school

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Dead Cert

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