The Dick Francis Treasury of Great Racing Stories

This 14-story collection of horseracing stories by British and American writers will provide pleasant reading for fans of the ``sport of kings.'' Represented here are such familiar names as Arthur Conan Doyle (``Silver Blaze,'' the story in which Sherlock Holmes makes his famous pronouncement about ``the curious incident of the dog in the night-time''), Edgar Wallace (``The Coop,'' in which the prolific mystery writer's series character, race track tout Educated Evans, turns a surprise profit) and Sherwood Anderson (``I'm a Fool,'' the first-person narrative of a young man trapped in his own deceit, entertaining despite its outdated racial attitudes). Francis, as might be expected, has a bit of crime at the heart of his ``Carrot for a Chestnut,'' a story of the fixing of a race with an O. Henryish twist. Welcome ( Grand National ) spins a tale of the unlikely racing triumph of an Oxford student over his untrustworthy best friend in ``A Glass of Port with the Proctor.'' The volume opens with Richard Findlay's ``The Dream,'' a nicely done tale of premonition and disaster, and closes with E. de Somerville and Martin Ross's ``The Bagman's Pony,'' an offbeat, amusing story of a race against the clock in Colonial India. (Nov.)