A to Z Mysteries – The Runaway Racehorse

A racehorse who has never lost goes missing the day before his big race in The Runaway Racehorse, Ron Roy's horsey mystery for 5 year olds.

What happens

Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose take the train to stay with their friend Forest Evans. He and Dink's Uncle Warren have bought a racehorse together. His name is Whirlaway, he's won every race so far, and tomorrow he's running at Saratoga.

Only, when they get to the barn, his stall is empty.

Forest thinks Whirlaway has just wandered off through the woods to visit his mum, an old mare on the farm next door. He's done it before. But she hasn't seen him. Then, after a thunderstorm, Whirlaway comes trotting back on his own, covered in mud.

The children wash him down with a hose and green soap (there's a funny shape stamped in the mud on his side). Everything seems fine. Except Whirlaway suddenly won't go near his own jockey, Sunny. And the next day, at the races, he comes in dead last.

Is he poorly? Is someone up to something? Ruth Rose has a hunch, and she's got her camera.

This is such a good one for a child who's horse-mad. Dink spends the train journey with his nose in The Black Stallion, and Ruth Rose has brought a book called Learning to Ride. There's a whole chapter at the racecourse too, with the long green barns, the starting gate and the crowds cheering on Merry Mary and Dancer.

The clues are lovely and small. A shape in the mud. A black smudge on Josh's collar. A sugar cube Whirlaway won't touch (he's the only horse Forest has ever met who doesn't like sugar). A photo that shows a bit more than Ruth Rose meant it to.

Josh is on top form as usual. He begins the book by drawing his initials in ketchup and dropping a blob on his favourite T-shirt. Ruth Rose calls it finger-painting!

There's a tense moment near the end when the friends are cornered in a shed with a growling dog. The grown-ups arrive quickly and nobody is hurt.

What to read next

For a mystery a lot closer to home, The School Skeleton has the friends back in their own classroom, where the skeleton in the nurse's office goes missing one Monday morning.