Brian Phillips (editor): First Past the Post

Random House $29.95

Review: Tim Watkin*

They used to be New Zealand's own irreligious trinity rugby, racing and beer.

They were the godhead of our leisure hours in less cosmopolitan times and we were better at them than a country this size had any right to be.

As recently as 1982 Vincent O'Sullivan wrote: "Even if we tried our hardest to have nothing to do with it, probably we would find it more difficult to get completely away from horse-racing here than in any country in the world."

How we have changed. While rugby and beer are still galloping strongly, racing has fallen away, lying well back in the field. Where First Past The Post succeeds is in reminding us how central the simple horse race was to our 20th-century national story.

The collection of 31 tales, articles and poems from 1900 to 1999 trots through distinctly New Zealand scenes described in an intonation all our own: the country courses beneath "hills of stubble bleached platinum in the summer dry" or on a beach, tide-permitting; the murmur of the track as punters talk of a dead cert or the horse that will stay like a mortgage; or the Waikato school kids who would rather see Cardigan Bay than the Queen.

Out of the stories come the silky thrill of raceday, the taste of Anzac biscuits and sausage rolls between races, the gallant sagas of Kindergarten and Rising Fast, and the pining of Bill Manhire's poem Phar Lap. Brian Phillips has edited well. Although 31 stories on one topic risks boring the unobsessed, this line-up is varied enough in length and style the personal, humorous, literary and analytical are all there.

And the topweights are thoroughbred storytellers - Frank Sargeson, Barbara Anderson and Maurice Gee stand out.

A few selections, especially the more recent offerings, are bland.

But ignore them as you would lightweights in any race - just there to make up the field.

By and large the best stories are the oldest, with their lively social history, native wit and fresh air.

If for nothing more than that, First Past The Post is a winning ride.

* Tim Watkin is a Herald feature-writer.