This true story of the rise of two Irish American butchers from a childhood spent playing marbles and scrapping with other children in the streets of Brooklyn to owning the top racing stable in the USA is a remarkable one. History has been neither honest nor fair in the way it has portrayed their story. This book is an attempt to put the record straight and to bring this hidden history back into the mainstream where it belongs. While exploring the rapid changes in the racing world of the 1880s, the book also explores the changes in society at the time. The Dwyers rose to fame at an extraordinary time in American history.

When two young Brooklyn butchers decide to take on the aristocracy of American thoroughbred racing in the 1870s, they let loose a storm of changes. Despised by some, adored by others, Phil and Mike Dwyer and their many champion thoroughbreds change American horse racing history forever. Part One of this true story charts the extraordinary rise of the Brooklyn Stable through ten racing seasons, taking the reader up to the height of their newfound fame and fortune in 1883.

The meteoric rise of the Brooklyn Stable continues unassailed. With such racing ?cracks? as Miss Woodford, Tremont, Hanover, Hindo, Dew Drop, and Kinsgton, the stable dominates Eastern racing in the late 1880s. However, behind the scenes there are personal struggles - family tragedy, scandal, and the beginnings of gambling addiction. Part Two takes the story through to the end of the Dwyer Brothers partnership.

Readers will welcome this final volume, Part III, as it takes our heroes, the Dwyer brothers, from the peak of their success into the complicated world of East Coast racing in the 1890s. As Mike and Phil try to keep greedy gambling bosses from making unfair profits off Dwyer racetracks, they run foul of provincial laws and fickle public opinion. One brother even attempts to the escape the constraints of legal battles by attempting to invade England with his stable. With their high profile status, every Dwyer horse, every win, every jockey, and every trainer comes under scrutiny. No longer young plungers, but seasoned businessmen, the brothers are relentlessly wooed by admirers and coerced by crooks. Through it all, their bond never falters. Readers will delight to read of the next generation of young Dwyer men eloping across America with their sweethearts, not chastised for their impulsive natures but congratulated on their choice of pretty brides.