The Nightingale Sings

When Cassie Rosse becomes the first woman to train an English Derby winner, with her home-bred horse The Nightingale, she has every right to believe that success is hers at last. Indeed, as she leads in her winner and raises her eyes to heaven, calling to her dead love Tyrone, "We did it!" she knows that this success is as much Tyrone's as hers.

For it was to his Irish family home of Claremore that he brought Cassie as a young bride, and from Claremore that Cassie at last stormed home to win a place in the history books. Now all she has to do is enjoy her success and retire The Nightingale, since, as a stallion, he is worth millions. But life is never simple for Cassie Rosse, not just because she is unable to move out from the long shadows cast by the early death of her husband, nor because of her indomitable will to win, but because she has integrity. Against all advice, therefore, she decides to race The Nightingale as a four- year-old, a decision that quickly turns her brilliant triumph into a nightmare.