The book, titled The History of The Moruya Jockey Club 1852-1905, was written by Tuross-Head based historian Carlene Winch-Dummett Ph.D.

Dr Winch-Dummett said it was a "privilege to write this book" about one of her favourite spots in the Eurobodalla Shire.

"I really love this race course," she said. "I love coming out here.

"It's wonderful to be so close to the horses, and I love the social environment out here. It's friendly, it's for families, for people who want to bet on the races, or for people who just want to breeze in and chat to people.

"You make many acquaintances and friends that you'll see every time you come here; it's such a delightful place to come."

The book covers the first 53 years of the jockey club's history.

"I had to think about the audience that would read the book," Dr Winch-Dummett said. "It would range from people who read casually, to people who want a really deep and thorough analysis.

"I had to write a book that manageable to read in a short amount of time, but also at a level that everyone could read.

"From there, I realised there was so much about this first 50 years that the best thing would be to stop after that.

"They were the formative years; 1852 was the first mention of the races here, and 1905 was when they opened the grandstand at the showgrounds."

Dr Winch-Dummett has done a number of research projects throughout her career, and said she "likes to have a subject that has a deep interest for me".

"I wanted to do a study about this area for some time before I approached the jockey club," she said. "There isn't much information at the historical society about this, so I thought the club would have all that information.

"We approached the board, and they decided this was a good idea. They put me in touch with someone who had attempted this in the past, and he gave me his notes.

"When I asked the club for its records, they didn't have any. I thought, 'this is going to be a challenge', but I like a challenge."

Dr Winch-Dummett spent the next 12 months going through old newspaper articles to try and put together the early history of the club.

"The only way for me to complete this would be using trove through the National Library of Australia," she said. "I went through all the old newspapers from the area to see what I could find.

"I could get everything that was written about the races, but I needed to make all that information palatable for the people reading it.

"Some of the information was fairly complex. When you look at the races and results, you have to connect what you've read before with what you're reading now.

"It all had to come together like a jigsaw puzzle to make sense, otherwise you're just missing out on a lot of information."

Dr Winch-Dummett said one early editor of a newspaper in Braidwood stood out as the most interesting writer from the time period.

"The editor was a beautiful writer," she said. "He wrote these flourishing descriptions of the races with a great sense of humour, which was delightful to read.

"For the first eight to 10 years, he would send those reports to other newspapers up north.

"Then there was a different editor who seemed to be more of a businessman, so he tended to write up the results of the races rather than a description of what happened.

"If I write another book, I'd have to decide whether I could get that humour and enjoyment in there for the reader, because those Braidwood reports were really fun to read."