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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Equestrian & animal sports > Horse racing > General
On May 4, 1968, Dancer's Image crossed the finish line at Churchill
Downs to win the 94th Kentucky Derby. Yet the jubilation ended
three days later for the owner, the jockey and the trainers who
propelled the celebrated thoroughbred to victory. Amid a firestorm
of controversy, Dancer's Image was disqualified after blood tests
revealed the presence of a widely used anti-inflammatory drug with
a dubious legal status. Over forty years later, questions still
linger over the origins of the substance and the turmoil it
created. Veteran turfwriter and noted equine law expert Milt Toby
gives the first in-depth look at the only disqualification in Derby
history and how the Run for the Roses was changed forever.
In the late eighteenth century, in the bustling city streets of
Louisville, began a tradition of thoroughbred racing that has
transcended centuries. Follow Kimberly Gatto as she chronicles the
history of the world's most famous racing venue, which
revolutionized the "Sport of Kings" and created the Kentucky Derby,
Kentucky Oaks and Clark Handicap races. Fans will enjoy the tales
of various horses, from the early triumph of Ten Broeck over Mollie
McCarthy to the Derby victory of the heroic Barbaro. Churchill
Downs: America's Most Historic Racetrack recounts how various
financial hardships, the introduction of parimutuel wagering, the
construction of the famed twin spires and the age of television
transformed Churchill Downs into the majestic track we recognize
today.
The Racing Post Desk Calendar is the perfect office accessory. It
is a tent-folded, wiro-bound desk calendar featuring one month to
view with the most up to date race meeting information in the UK
and Ireland at the time of publication - jumps, flat and the
all-weather. It also includes the principal races and bloodstock
sales dates. Every month is illustrated with a superb colour
photograph by Edward Whitaker or one of the Racing Post's
award-winning photographers. It is great for your desk or side
table as a quick reference and for adding key personal events.
It was a cold and foggy February night in 1983 when a group of
armed thieves crept onto Ballymany Stud, near The Curragh in County
Kildare, Ireland, to steal Shergar, one of the Thoroughbred
industry's most renowned stallions. Bred and raced by the Aga Khan
IV and trained in England by Sir Michael Stoute, Shergar achieved
international prominence in 1981 when he won the 202nd Epsom Derby
by ten lengths -- the longest winning margin in the race's history.
The thieves demanded a hefty ransom for the safe return of one of
the most valuable Thoroughbreds in the world, but the ransom was
never paid and Shergar's remains have never been found. In Taking
Shergar: Thoroughbred Racing's Most Famous Cold Case, Milton C.
Toby presents an engaging narrative that is as thrilling as any
mystery novel. The book provides new analysis of the body of
evidence related to the stallion's disappearance, delves into the
conspiracy theories that surround the inconclusive investigation,
and presents a profile of the man who might be the last person able
to help solve part of the mystery. Toby examines the extensive cast
of suspects and their alleged motives, including the Irish
Republican Army and their need for new weapons, a French bloodstock
agent who died in Central Kentucky, and even the Libyan dictator,
Muammar al-Qadhafi. This riveting account of the most notorious
unsolved crime in the history of horse racing will captivate
serious racing fans and aficionados as well as entertain a new
generation of horse racing enthusiasts.
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