Book recommedations

[dean smith]

I don't think anyone has mentioned a book called "Three Strides Before the Wire" by Elizabeth Mitchell. This book is great. It follows D. Wayne Lukas, Chris Antley (as he self-destructs) and Charismatic during his 1999 Triple Crown run. If you like recent racing history, it's a must read.

[CSC]

Originally Posted by Scurlogue Champ

Come on, that's a great read

I'll pick it up right after I'm thru with War and Peace.

[infield_line]

Can't remember the author, but was written by the breeder of Monarchos, and besides being an extremely witty book, it gives you a first hand look into the breeding game and how incredibly tough it is to get a foal to the winners circle on the 1st sat in May..... I highly recommend.

of course, there are a wide range of essential reads, I would start with the Handicapper's Condition Book by Quinn.. actually I love anything he has written.

Happy Holidays,

I/L

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by infield_line

Can't remember the author, but was written by the breeder of Monarchos, and besides being an extremely witty book, it gives you a first hand look into the breeding game and how incredibly tough it is to get a foal to the winners circle on the 1st sat in May..... I highly recommend.

^^^ Jim Squires

[Kasept]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/others...6_larry25.html

Column in the Seattle P-I the other day by Larry Lee Palmer that offers his Top 10 racing books of all time.. A very complete list too...

1. "Big Red of Meadow Stable: Secretariat, the Making of a Champion," by William Nack.

2. "The Honest Rainmaker: The Life and Times of Col. John R. Stingo," fabulous figure of track and ring, by A.J. Liebling. Several all-time-best lists rate Liebling's masterpiece "The Sweet Science" as the best book ever written about sport. "The Honest Rainmaker" is simply the most dazzling account of a racetrack con man/provocateur/turf writer ever written. The schemes and aphorisms of James A. McDonald -- aka Stingo -- are a measuring stick by which other would-be railbird racketeers will forever be measured. My favorite line: "Fortune swims, not in the main stream of letters, but in the shallows where the suckers moon."

3. "Seabiscuit," by Laura Hillenbrand.

4. "Memories of a Bookie's Son," by Sidney Offit. This tour de force centers on the life of Buckley Offit, then the biggest bookie in the U.S. outside the mob. As moving as it is tantalizing, this slim volume transcends classification. The complexities and angst of the father-son relationship explode over its pages in patient, weathered prose. Kurt Vonnegut said, "These are literate, affectionate portraits of a Baltimore bookmaker by his law-abiding son. This book is no joke. This is beauty."

5. "Laughing in the Hills," by Bill Barich. This is an insightful and reflective treatise about the author's dark hour -- haunted by illness and death in the family -- in which he took refuge in a season at his local racetrack. Described on the dust jacket of the original hardbound edition as "part pilgrimage, part meditation, part reflection in a fun-house mirror," it established Barich's enduring reputation in modern racetrack lore.

6. "A Hoofprint on my Heart," by Jim Coleman. An out-of-print memoir by Canada's most celebrated horse racing columnist, you can still buy hardbound copies at Abebooks.com for a pittance. The book is full of stories of bootlegging and betting coups and unsavory characters you really want to meet in the flesh by the Mike Royko of horse racing scribes. Hard-bitten and hard sent, Coleman will regale you with ribald tales well into the wee hours.

7. "The Bookmaker's Daughter," by Shirley Abbott. This was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 1991 for good reason. Alfred Abbott was not a bookmaker, as he told his wife during courtship. His craft was taking bets on horses, and he was a master. A gentleman bandit, Abbott also loved to read, and introduced his only daughter into the world of letters. You'll be glad he did; Shirley Abbott writes a searing memoir rich in sociology and Southern myth that courageously probes the past to reveal a universal liberation on these printed pages. It's a fascinating character study of "a charming, dangerous man."

8. "Wild Ride," by Anne Hagedorn Auerbach.

9. "Not by a Long Shot: A Season at a Hard Luck Horse Track," by T.D. Thornton.

10. "My Days With Erroll Flynn," by Buster Wiles, with William Donati.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by CSC

I'll pick it up right after I'm thru with War and Peace.

all kidding aside, that's actually a very good book.

[Danzig]

haven't seen the seabiscuit book mentioned yet, it's pretty good-much better than the movie.
also recommend 'my racing heart' by nan mooney. i also have all the thoroughbred legends books, easy to read, enjoyable enough.

[Linny]

This Was Racing by Joe Palmer. A collection of Palmer's witty wrtings puplished posthumously in 1953 or so. Great stuff. It shows you that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Every racing fan must have a copy of Champions as a reference. No greater book has been published to provide perspective.

I agree about Nack's Secretariat.

Those who follow breeding and the history of racing should have Bloodlines by Abram Hewitt.

Wild Ride was also a great book. It's available in many libraries but is not catalogued as a racing book. Look for it in the business section.

In terms of handicapping. I like Crist's writing style so I like Exotic Betting and Quinn's Handicappers Condition Book. is a must read.

[Thunder Gulch]

Agree that Wild Ride was a fantastic book.

[Gate Dancer]

Another fine read is 'Tarnished Crown' by Carol Flake

Details the trials and tribulations of Chiefs Crown.