LIKE so many of Raymond Smith's books on horse racing, Better One Day As A Lion has strong and weak points. It runs to 263 pages, but could easily have been a lot less - which surely is an indictment of its overall impact.

What this book cries out for is a seasoned editor. Smith's tendency to drift into areas guaranteed to lose the interest of the most avid reader is a frequent feature; the description of the small run-of-the-mill trainer on page 19, which runs to over 36 lines, is one example of over-indulgence.

The author also has an annoying habit of repeating himself, whether he is delivering facts on jockeys, trainers or English coarse fishermen - what you read on page 26 is liable to be repeated on page 51 - and his constant plugging of his other publications is another feature the book could have done without. There is, for example, a three-quarter page advertisement for a previous book, Urbi Et Orbi And All That, on pace 153.

It's a great pity, because a good deal of Better One Day As A Lion - a quote from World Hold `Em Poker Champion, 1982, Jack (Treetop) Straus - is very interesting with much well-researched material. Indeed, Smith goes to, great lengths to get original background information on some very colourful characters who normally prefer to remain out of the public gaze.

He reveals in the author's notes that he was inspired to write the book principally by the romantic story of Imperial Call's triumph in last March's Gold Cup at Cheltenham. The horse's trainer, Fergie Sutherland, is a man who doesn't suffer fools gladly and, in his own words, prefers to let his horses do the talking.

But Smith manages to get into the inner sanctum - and, after a while, has the trainer from Killinardrish in Co Cork singing The Banks Of My Own Lovely Lee as the pair traverse Sutherland's training establishment in a Land Rover.

Sutherland, who lost the lower part of his left leg in the Korean War, again carries the hopes of a nation next month when Imperial Call defends his title against two other Irish hopefuls, Danoli and Doran's Pride. It promises to be a mouth-watering contest.

It is also pleasing to see the jockey Conor O'Dwyer feature prominently in the book. It may be a cliche, but O'Dwyer is one of the nice guys of the weighroom and no one begrudged the Wexford man when he scored his first success at Cheltenham on Imperial Call.

Better One Day As A Lion is best described as a collection of short features, divided into three-sections. The first has a heavy emphasis on National Hunt racing, which is undoubtedly the more" popular of the two codes in this country. As well as Sutherland and O'Dwyer, 15 chapters are devoted to jump trainers Tom Foley (the Danoli story), Edward O'Grady and Arthur Moore as well as jump jockeys Adrian Maguire, Charlie Swan, Norman Williamson and Mick Fitzgerald.

Part two of the book deals with the "Men of the Flat" and includes articles on Dermot Weld, Jim Bolger, John Oxx, Aidan O'Brien and jockeys Michael Kinane, Christy Roche and John Murtagh. Smith concludes with a look at his favourite topic, the exploits of some of the present-day big-time gamblers.

Overall Better One Day As A Lion is a disappointment in that Raymond Smith has thrown the net over such a wide and over-fished area; he has, you might say, trodden down a path already well worn.