The world of Thoroughbred horse racing is much more than the glitz-and-glamour Saturday races shown on TV. From Sunday through Friday, there are a myriad of horses who run, not for million dollar purses, but in the smaller claiming races that keep horse-racing alive and financially viable. On these same days, there are the bettors, owners, trainers and jockeys who form the backbone of horse-racing with their less-than-glamorous livelihood. This volume presents a non-fiction insider's look at today's sport of Thoroughbred racing from a day-to-day, behind-the-scenes vantage point. Divided into three sections, it discusses the racing, breeding and jockeying which is the reality of Thoroughbred racing. From trainers and jockeys to the editor of the Illinois Racing News, men and women well versed in the sport provide firsthand insight and experience regarding the actualities of Thoroughbred racing. Selected racing records and an extensive glossary of horse racing terms are also included.

Although he was no American Pharoah on the track, Blue Blue Sea finds his "cape" in retirement.

The Eagle & The Plum is an insider's chronicle of the unprecedented, record-setting feats of two wrong-side-of-the-tracks Thoroughbreds competing at racing's outback tracks who raced long, hard, and often...Sometimes with success, sometimes not. It is a compassionate, truly-told story of the reality-defying love affair two blue-collar horses had for the dangerous sport of horseracing, and of the people who care for them.

In the bestselling tradition ofthe The Eighty-Dollar Champion, the propulsive, inspiring Cinderella story of Stymie, an unwanted Thoroughbred, and Hirsch Jacobs, the once dirt-poor trainer who bought the colt on the cheap and molded him into the most popular horse of his time and the richest racehorse the world had ever seen. In the wake of World War II, as turmoil and chaos were giving way to a spirit of optimism, Americans were looking for inspiration and role models showing that it was possible to start from the bottom and work your way up to the top-and they found it in Stymie, the failed racehorse plucked from the discard heap by trainer Hirsch Jacobs. Like Stymie, Jacobs was a commoner in "The Sport of Kings," a dirt-poor Brooklyn city slicker who forged an unlikely career as racing's winningest trainer by buying cheap, unsound nags and magically transforming them into winners. The $1,500 pittance Jacobs paid to claim Stymie became history's biggest bargain as the ultimate iron horse went on to run a whopping 131 races and win 25 stakes, becoming the first Thoroughbred ever to earn more than $900,000. The Cinderella champion nicknamed "The People's Horse" captivated the masses with his rousing charge-from-behind stretch runs, his gritty blue-collar work ethic, and his rags-to-riches success story. In a golden age when horse racing rivaled baseball and boxing as America's most popular pastime, he was every bit as inspiring a sports hero as Joe DiMaggio and Joe Louis. Taking readers on a crowd-pleasing ride with Stymie and Jacobs, Out of the Clouds -- the winner of the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award -- unwinds a real-life Horatio Alger tale of a dauntless team and its working-class fans who lived vicariously through the stouthearted little colt they embraced as their own.

"With the pace, intensity, and beauty of a thoroughbred beginning its stretch run, Twelve Trees is simply mesmerizing." – M.T. Kelly Exracetrack journalist Priam Harvey, occupant of the prized "corner stool" at McCully’s Tavern, marks the first anniversary of his firing from Sport of Kings magazine and the coincident departure of his girlfriend, Barbara, by doing what he does best: drinking and gambling. Events conspire, however, and when Harvey is pulled off his stool – literally and metaphorically – he is forced to make an important decision about his involvement in the lives of those around him, and, for that matter, in his own life. Harvey, who appeared briefly in J.D. Carpenter’s first novel, The Devil in Me, and played a major role in its sequels, Bright’s Kill ("a satisfying suspense story of the first order" – Edmonton Journal) and 74 Miles Away ("slick, smart, not a shred of padding" – Globe and Mail), takes centre stage in this unusual tale of one mans coming to terms with himself.

Squires takes a rollicking look at the pomp, arrogance, passion, and avarice that drive both man and horse in the most exciting two minutes in sports. Photos.