In the 1890s, feisty Tod Sloan (1874-1933) abandoned the
centuries-old jockey tradition of riding in a straight sitting
position and instead crouched low on the neck of his horse. The
result was not only a string of victories for young Sloan but also
a revolution in horse racing. In this entertaining book,
award-winning author John Dizikes recounts the remarkable story of
the Indiana boy who rose from obscurity to become the most famous
jockey in the United States and Great Britain at the turn of the
century. Dizikes evokes the turbulent, colorful world of horse
racing and gambling in which Tod Sloan rocketed to celebrity -- and
from which he was just as dramatically ejected.
Sloan's innovative riding style helped to transform horse racing
into the first nationally popular spectator sport, drawing in huge
crowds and vast amounts of betting money. But Sloan's career was
crushingly ended by those who resented and envied him. A dandy, a
big spender, a man whose company women loved, Sloan related to
horses in an almost magical way, yet foundered in his dealings with
people. This book is the biography of a diminutive man who lived in
large style, and lives on in George M. Cohan's musical Little
Johnny Jones and Ernest Hemingway's short story "My Old Man". The
book is also much more -- a fascinating cultural history that
illuminates the history of horse racing and betting, the
democratization of sport, changing conceptions of masculinity, the
hypocrisy of Victorian morality, the lionizing and demonizing of
celebrities, and a variety of other inviting topics.
General
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