"An insider's stunning account of the corrupt practices that threaten both the horses and the game . . . an engrossing read." --"Minneapolis Star-Tribune"""

Jim Squires was in trouble. He was in the horse business, an enterprise seemingly intent on committing suicide, led over the cliff by visionless leaders. A clannish group called "the Dinnies" had long refused to share power, as vast overproduction and unbridled greed created a subprime-like bubble in the market. Overpriced animals of dubious quality and drug-enhanced performance on the track were undermining the integrity of competition and ultimately the very breed itself. With its economic model broken, its tawdry sales practices under attack, and its public image in tatters, the sport was overdue for a reckoning.

"Headless Horsemen" is Squires's critique of what is happening to the sport and the animals he loves, as he and a small group of unlikely heroes agitate for a return to fair dealing. For anyone who cares about the soul and survival of horse racing, this book is an impassioned call to arms.

A Big Key To Winning
This book is tightly focused on just one handicapping subject, the Key Race. A Key Race is generally defined as a race from which two or more horses have gone on to win their next races. The idea here is that if two or more horses from this race have gone on to win their next, then the race was unusually competitive. Doesn't it follow then, that many other horses in the race probably ran better that it may appear at first?
A nice idea, but can it produce winning wagers? That's the subject addressed by this book. The book begins by illustrating a few Key Races, but goes on to document real results using this handicapping tool. Finally, it shows you how to identify horses coming from key races and how to use this knowledge to improve your handicapping results.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH Smarty Jones-the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and near Belmont Stakes Triple Crown winner finally opens up about his life on and off the racetrack. The Thoroughbred Thinker hurls some zingers, and throws a few ringers on the horseracing establishment. In this fact-based fable, America's horse touches on topics spanning leadership & motivation to humor & humility. Smarty gives an education ranging from the history of the horse, to the traits of a champion.Pony up with a feel-good Philadelphia story, and learn how this blue collar horse has touched and restored the lives of those around him. Catch the emotion as he runs for the Roses and carries an entire nation on his back. Go in depth with Smarty and learn his Team's tale of hard work and big hearts.With a focus on entertaining and teaching the reader, Smarty delivers the inside story of his family, friends, fans, and place in history. He provides a stable's worth of wisdom, and lessons of life in the fast lane.

How to identify long shots in thoroughbred horse racing. How to identify "false favorites" in thoroughbred horse racing.

Seabiscuit was one of the most electrifying and popular attractions in sports history and the single biggest newsmaker in the world in 1938, receiving more coverage than FDR, Hitler, or Mussolini. But his success was a surprise to the racing establishment, which had written off the crooked-legged racehorse with the sad tail. Three men changed Seabiscuit’s fortunes:

Charles Howard was a onetime bicycle repairman who introduced the automobile to the western United States and became an overnight millionaire. When he needed a trainer for his new racehorses, he hired Tom Smith, a mysterious mustang breaker from the Colorado plains. Smith urged Howard to buy Seabiscuit for a bargain-basement price, then hired as his jockey Red Pollard, a failed boxer who was blind in one eye, half-crippled, and prone to quoting passages from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Over four years, these unlikely partners survived a phenomenal run of bad fortune, conspiracy, and severe injury to transform Seabiscuit from a neurotic, pathologically indolent also-ran into an American sports icon.

Author Laura Hillenbrand brilliantly re-creates a universal underdog story, one that proves life is a horse race.


From the Hardcover edition.

THIS 36 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Thoroughbred Racing and Breeding: The Story of the Sport and Background of the Horse Industry, by Tom R. Underwood. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 1419160702.

Horse Talk is a fun, informative, and handy guide, dedicated to helping people understand Thoroughbred racing and training terminology. Over 207 words or phrases defined, explained and used in a creative sentence by the opinion of the author.With the exception of some track conditions, betting terms, and medications.

Make sure to check out Mr. Tuttle's blog site (http: //thetuttlemathpsm.com/); for winning picks and much more. Plus, it's a wonderful way to read some very lengthy excerpts of all nine of his horse handicapping books currently selling on Amazon.com. This book is a bit more "advanced," and tackles a lot of "Now" issues. Plus, it talks in great detail about Mr. Tuttle's "step-by-step" way in which he handicaps, hence the title....."The Tuttle Way."

Hook to the BookThere are two, I repeat, two things standing in the way of your personal success with exotic wagering. One of the two is you. The other is a paradox involving your approach, the standard approach, to playing the exotics. I will provide you a quick, yet thorough explanation in this book. Realizing your vision of winning exotic wagers consistently necessitates a brand-new mindset, and then soon you will be on the surefire road to unparalleled success. You are only a couple of hours away from identifying the other hurdle, thus obliterating the hindrances and obtaining your long-elusive dream.

This book will give you the race track betting basics needed when gambling / handicapping on the ponies. Dealing with sports & outdoor recreation of: thoroughbred racing & wagering. After reading this book you should possess the basics to be a successful horse handicapper which will bring you joyful entertainment as you watch your horses cross the finish line in the big races such as The Kentucky Derby, The Belmont, and The Preakness just to name a few. This will hopefully be the first of many OTB and racetrack betting guides I publish. So I hope you have as much fun reading the book, as I had writing it.

Reprint 1961 edition. p.224. Sonora Carver was an American entertainer, most notable as one of the first female horse divers. Carver answered an ad placed by "Doc" William Frank Carver in 1923 for a diving girl and soon earned a place in circus history.Her job was to mount a running horse as it reached the top of a forty-foot (sometimes sixty-foot) tower and sail down along the animal's back as it plunged into a deep pool of water directly below. Sonora was a sensation and soon became the lead diving girl for Doc Carver's act as they traveled the country. In 1931, Sonora was blinded, a retinal detachment, due to hitting the water off-balance with her eyes open.while diving her horse, Red Lips, on New Jersey's Steel Pier, the act's permanent home since 1929. After her accident Sonora continued to dive horses until 1942.

This is the 25th edition of the highly regarded guide to two year olds by Steve Taplin. The book profiles around 1,500 two year olds each year, and of particular importance to the punter are the author's perceptive pedigree assessments gathered in pre-season interviews.Steve Taplin is very well known and trusted by trainers in the UK and Ireland, and they are therefore happy to give him the inside line on their best horses. The book also includes a foreword from leading trainer John Gosden. Laid out in an easy-to-use A-Z format by trainer, the book also features a wealth of detailed statistics - stallion references, racing trends, indexes to sires and dams, star two year olds, bloodstock assessments and much more.

A hundred years ago, the most famous athlete in America was a horse. But Dan Patch was more than a sports star; he was a cultural icon in the days before the automobile. Born crippled and unable to stand, he was nearly euthanized. For a while, he pulled the grocer's wagon in his hometown of Oxford, Indiana. But when he was entered in a race at the county fair, he won -- and he kept on winning. Harness racing was the top sport in America at the time, and Dan, a pacer, set the world record for the mile. He eventually lowered the mark by four seconds, an unheard-of achievement that would not be surpassed for decades.

America loved Dan Patch, who, though kind and gentle, seemed to understand that he was a superstar: he acknowledged applause from the grandstands with a nod or two of his majestic head and stopped as if to pose when he saw a camera. He became the first celebrity sports endorser; his name appeared on breakfast cereals, washing machines, cigars, razors, and sleds. At a time when the highest-paid baseball player, Ty Cobb, was making $12,000 a year, Dan Patch was earning over a million dollars.

But even then horse racing attracted hustlers, cheats, and touts. Drivers and owners bet heavily on races, which were often fixed; horses were drugged with whiskey or cocaine, or switched off with "ringers." Although Dan never lost a race, some of his races were rigged so that large sums of money could change hands. Dan's original owner was intimidated into selling him, and America's favorite horse spent the second half of his career touring the country in a plush private railroad car and putting on speed shows for crowds that sometimes exceeded 100,000 people. But the automobile cooled America's romance with the horse, and by the time he died in 1916, Dan was all but forgotten. His last owner, a Minnesota entrepreneur gone bankrupt, buried him in an unmarked grave. His achievements have faded, but throughout the years, a faithful few kept alive the legend of Dan Patch, and in "Crazy Good," Charles Leerhsen travels through their world to bring back to life this fascinating story of triumph and treachery in small-town America and big-city racetracks.

The untold story of the worlds most famous and successful thoroughbred stallion during his racing career told by his race track groom.

Before Jackie Robinson ever donned a Dodger uniform - there was Tom Bass. Before Rosa Parks ever demanded a seat in the front of the bus - there was Tom Bass. Before Martin Luther King ever had a dream - there was Tom Bass. Before Barack Obama ever ran for President - there was the legend of Tom Bass - the black horse whisperer. Born a slave, Tom Bass rose to the summit of what had always been a white man's profession, the training of the America's greatest Saddlebred horses. At nine years old this Mozart of the equestrian world used his extraordinary natural talent to teach an outlaw mule who couldn't even be handled to canter backwards. An advocate of gentleness and patience, Bass turned dangerous horses into reliable mounts - without ever raising his voice or using a whip. His immense knowledge of equine psychology allowed the man who had been born in a slave cabin to invent a revolutionary and humane bit, still in use today. Yet Bass's greatest achievements were in the saddle, not in the training ring. What he was able to entice horses to do defies belief. His consummate skill and immense empathy with horses allowed him to produce horses of such exquisite proficiency that their accomplishments are still remembered today. Buffalo Bill's famous white horse, Columbus, was one such legendary talent. Bass was able largely to transcend the race barrier because he was accounted the greatest horseman of the late nineteenth century. The first black American ever to ride in Madison Square Garden, in an age when racial segregation ruled the nation, Tom Bass was the mounted friend of five presidents of the United States, including Teddy Roosevelt. Upon Tom's death in 1934, his name was a household word, synonymous with equestrian feats of unparalleled beauty and achievement. Then his story faded into oblivion, until this fascinating biography of America's most remarkable black horseman was rescued from the shadows.

Kent Hollingsworth captures the flavor and atmosphere of the Sport of Kings in the dramatic account of the development of the Thoroughbred in Kentucky. Ranging from frontier days, when racing was conducted in open fields as horse-to-horse challenges between proud owners, to the present, when a potential Triple Crown champion may sell for millions of dollars, The Kentucky Thoroughbred considers ten outstanding stallions that dominated the shape of racing in their time as representing the many eras of Kentucky Thoroughbred breeding. No less colorful are his accounts of the owners, breeders, trainers, and jockeys associated with these Thoroughbreds, a group devoted to a sport filled with high adventure and great hazards. First published in 1976, this popular Kentucky classic has been expanded and brought up to date in this new edition.

Would a $400,000 Pick 6 paycheck change your life? If youre consistently losing money at the racetrack, here is your opportunity to turn it all around and become a winner]fast The name of this game isnt, Who knows the most about horse racing or handicapping? The name of this game is, Can you win BIG money at the racetrack year after year? The only way to do so is to become a Pick 6 winner. A repeat Pick 6 winner. Millions of horseplayers simply just dont get it. They are losers. Readers of How to WIN the PICK 6 are going to get it. They are going to learn how to stop being losers and how to become winners. They will be pushed, coached and mentored into working responsibly with their racing bankroll. Frittering money away on pick 3s, exactas, superfectas and super high fives is not what winners do. Playing those fun bets will drain your bank account. Author Steven Kolb launches an assault on his readers to help put an end to their loser label. Readers will learn how to turn the tide and become winners. Not just winners: Kolb wants his readers who get it to become BIG winners. If you want to be in the Winners Circle youll need to learn how to play the Pick 6, when to play the Pick 6, where to play the Pick 6 and what to do once you start cashing in on five- and six-figure paychecks. This IS your opportunity This book can pay for itself, your retirement, AND your house For information about Author Steven Kolb, visit the publishers website rhovenpublishing com.

The first Japanese American jockey, Kokomo Joe burst like a comet on the American horse-racing scene in the summer of 1941. As war with Japan loomed, Yoshio "Kokomo Joe" Kobuki won race after race, stirring passions far beyond merely the envy and antagonism of other jockeys. His is a story of the American dream catapulting headlong into the nightmare of a nation gripped by wartime hysteria and xenophobia. The story that unfolds in "Kokomo Joe" is at once inspiring, deeply sad, and richly ironic--and remarkably relevant in our own climate of nationalist fervor and racial profiling. Sent to Japan from Washington State after his mother and three siblings died of the Spanish flu, Kobuki continued to nurse his dream of the American good life. Because of his small stature, his ambition steered him to a future as a star jockey. John Christgau narrates Kobuki's rise from lowly stable boy to reigning star at California fairs and in the bush leagues. He describes how, at the height of the jockey's fame, even his flight into the Sonora Desert could not protect him from the government's espionage and sabotage dragnet. And finally he recounts how, after three years of internment, Kokomo Joe tried to reclaim his racing success, only to fall victim to still-rampant racism, a career-ending injury, and cancer.

George H. Morris has ridden and trained international show jumpers, champion show hunters and equitation stars for more than half a century. Morris, now the U.S. show jumping team's chef d'equipe, was named one of the 50 Most Influential Horsemen of the 20th Century in 1999 by The Chronicle of the Horse, the magazine for which he's written a monthly "Between Rounds" column since 1989.
Now, John Strassburger, who recently retired as the Chronicle's editor after 20 years and who created the magazine's "Between Rounds" section, has selected Morris' 50 best columns to preserve the equestrian legend's words for horsemen and women who are committed to riding and training their horses correctly.
The book is divided into four sections to encompass Morris' major themes over the last 17 years: In the section called It's Not Like It Used To Be, Morris analyzes the evolution of the sport he loves over the last century and decries the declining standards of horsemanship he sees around him. In What Good Teachers Teach, he offers his own unique brand of classically based advise on how to train riders and their horses. In I've Always Been Devoted To The Forward Seat, Morris explains why the century-old technique he favors is the best way to jump horses. And in George On Tour, he describes a few of his travels to destinations from the former Soviet Union to the Athens Olympics.
This collection of Morris' columns is the first of the five-part Chronicle Comment Series. For the second book in the series, due in Spring 2007, Strassburger will collect his 75 best Commentaries, from 1982 to 2006. Then he'll collect the best columns by three more "Between Rounds" columnists?Victor Hugo-Vidal, Denny Emerson and Anne Gribbons?for publication in late 2007 and in 2008.

This unique puzzle book is a must have for horse racing fans young and old alike. Whether you're a novice or a seasoned professional, these puzzles will challenge and entertain you with hours of fun. Test your racing savvy with games such as Photo Finish, Rivals, Blue Bloods, The Winners Circle, Racing Tips, The Daily Double, The Exacta and Call To Post, just to name a few. There are over forty puzzles in all to test your wit and wisdom about the sport of kings. So saddle up, grab your pencil by the reins and try not to let these games throw you.