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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Equestrian & animal sports > Horse racing > General
There are still many unknowns in the breeding of Thoroughbreds, but
the international research coalition known as the Equine Genome
Project is facilitating many new exciting discoveries. Dr Matthew
Binns is a leader of the project, an enterprise set up to map the
equine genome, and with racing historian and bloodstock authority
Tony Morris has written this important book on the theory,
practice, art and science of Thoroughbred breeding. This
long-awaited book describes how man came to express pedigree and to
develop theories about it, and how practical breeders behaved in
the light of their understanding. It explains why many theories -
including some still widely granted credibility today - are
fallacious, examines the very real progress in knowledge since the
principles of genetics were discovered, and focuses on the exciting
developments of the last few years, when eminent geneticists have
applied their expertise to the subject of the Thoroughbred. It has
been the authors' endeavour to present that information in a form
that may be readily understood by anyone who shares a love of the
Thoroughbred and a fascination with what makes him what he is.
Packed with absorbing history and cutting-edge science, this is a
fascinating and illuminating book.
The Queen's Plate was inaugurated, with royal blessing, on
Wednesday, June 27, 1860, at the Carleton track in Toronto, located
in bucolic surroundings near what is now the traffic-strangled
southwestern corner of Keele and Dundas streets. There is no reason
to believe that Queen Victoria was a wild-eyed devotee of horse
racing. However, Her Majesty granted the petition of the little
turf club in the boisterous Upper Canada community (the population
of Toronto was 44,425) and offered as an annual prize, "a plate to
the value of Fifty Guineas." And thus Canadian horse racing was
established as "the sport of royalty." Today, the Queen's Plate is
the first jewel in Canada's Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing and
the longest continuously run stakes race in North America. It takes
place every June, and the first-place purse is $1 million. The
Plate is unquestionably Canada's most famous, one-day social and
sporting event. This book explores the colourful history of the
Queen's Plate through words and archival photographs.
He was always destined to be a champion. Royally bred, with English
and American classic winners in his pedigree, Sir Barton shone from
birth, dubbed the "king of them all." But after a winless
two-year-old season and a near-fatal illness, uncertainty clouded
the start of Sir Barton's three-year-old season. Then his surprise
victory in America's signature race, the Kentucky Derby, started
him on the road to history, where he would go on to dominate the
Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, completing America's first Triple
Crown. His wins inspired the ultimate chase for greatness in
American horse racing and established an elite group that would
grow to include legends like Citation, Secretariat, and American
Pharoah. After a series of dynamic wins in 1920, popular opinion
tapped Sir Barton as the best challenger for the wonder horse Man
o' War, and demanded a match race to settle once and for all which
horse was the greatest. That duel would cement the reputation of
one horse for all time and diminish the reputation of the other for
the next century -- until now. Sir Barton and the Making of the
Triple Crown is the first book to focus on Sir Barton, his career,
and his historic impact on horse racing. Author Jennifer S. Kelly
uses extensive research and historical sources to examine this
champion's life and achievements. Kelly charts how Sir Barton broke
track records, scored victories over other champions, and sparked
the yearly pursuit of Triple Crown glory. This book reveals the
legacy of Sir Barton and his seminal contributions to Thoroughbred
racing one hundred years after his pioneering achievement.
Here, for the first time, is the story of how America's first
national resort gave birth to, then nurtured, its first national
sport, introducing the country to a parade of champions and their
spectacular supporting characters. To experience this adventure is
to see why the Saratoga Race Course, America's oldest major sports
facility remains one of its most beloved and most successful.
They're Off! is as much a social history as it is sports history.
Edward Hotaling opens with a little-known visit by the first famous
tourist, George Washington, who tried to buy the place he called
"the Saratoga Springs". Soon the pursuit of happiness at our
original vacationland helped redefine America. Even at the height
of the Civil War, the country's first organized sport was launched
on a national scale.
The son of a poor butcher, John Gully rose to the height of
Victorian respectability, whose death in ripe old age was mourned
by all classes from paupers to princes. It's the story of an
extraordinarily varied life - a bare knuckle fighter and champion
of England, a publican, a hugely successful gambler, bookmaker,
racehorse and colliery owner, and finally a Member of Parliament.
Set at a time when fortunes were won and lost on the turn of a
dice, Gully saw the greed and corruption, the rogues and rascals.
Remarkable sporting characters of the age feature, such as William
Crockford, the Betting Shark; the chivalrous prize fighter Henry
Pearce; the mighty Tom Cribb, bare knuckle champion of the world;
and Colonel Mellish, prolific gambler and finest of the
Corinthians. Enemies saw Gully as a cunning man, a schemer who
corrupted the betting world. To others he was a man with impeccable
judgement and integrity, to whom royalty would trust their
fortunes. The Stakes Were High is the fascinating story of his
life.
A thrilling collection of 200 photographs from the high-octane,
glamourous world of flat racing, from the Irish Derby and the Irish
Guineas at The Curragh, to the many local race meets, and reaching
internationally to the highlights in the racing calendar and as far
afield as Melbourne and Saudi Arabia. The book contains an exciting
mix of the horses, the big wins, the big events, alongside
significant wins for smaller trainers/owners/riders from 2011-2021.
Some pages cover key photographs that capture significant people,
special moments or are simply just great shots.
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