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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Equestrian & animal sports > Horse racing
Thoroughbred racing was one of the first major sports in early
America. Horse racing thrived because it was a high-status sport
that attracted the interest of both old and new money. It grew
because spectators enjoyed the pageantry, the exciting races, and,
most of all, the gambling. As the sport became a national industry,
the New York metropolitan area, along with the resort towns of
Saratoga Springs (New York) and Long Branch (New Jersey), remained
at the center of horse racing with the most outstanding race
courses, the largest purses, and the finest thoroughbreds. Riess
narrates the history of horse racing, detailing how and why New
York became the national capital of the sport from the mid-1860s
until the early twentieth century. The sport's survival depended
upon the racetrack being the nexus between politicians and
organized crime. The powerful alliance between urban machine
politics and track owners enabled racing in New York to flourish.
Gambling, the heart of racing's appeal, made the sport morally
suspect. Yet democratic politicians protected the sport, helping to
establish the State Racing Commission, the first state agency to
regulate sport in the United States. At the same time, racetracks
became a key connection between the underworld and Tammany Hall,
enabling illegal poolrooms and off-course bookies to operate.
Organized crime worked in close cooperation with machine
politicians and local police officers to protect these illegal
operations. In The Sport of Kings and the Kings of Crime, Riess
fills a long-neglected gap in sports history, offering a richly
detailed and fascinating chronicle of thoroughbred racing's heyday.
Might and Power was a giant in a golden era of exceptional
racehorses- the horse of a lifetime for owner Nick Moraitis, the
horse of hope for trainer Jack Denham, and the horse of redemption
for jockey Jim Cassidy. Despite his awkward galloping style, few
thoroughbreds could match Might and Power's sustained speed and
stamina, and racing fans loved his freewheeling leader's style. In
1997, after winning the Caulfield Cup by a staggering seven and a
half lengths, he again led all the way to capture the Australian
turf's greatest prize, the Melbourne Cup - holding at bay valiant
stayer Doriemus to triumph in one of the race's closest finishes.
No one expects to see another horse do this again. Not like Mighty.
When he followed his astonishing Cups double with a victory in the
W.S. Cox Plate in 1998, Might and Power was the undisputed champion
of the Australian turf, and one of the best horses in the world.
Since retiring from the racetrack, he has become a much-loved
ambassador for the sport of kings, truly a People's Horse. Now, 20
years after his astonishing Caulfield and Melbourne Cup conquests,
Helen Thomas revisits the extraordinary story of this horse called
Mighty.
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