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The Sport of Kings and the Kings of Crime - Horse Racing Politics and Organized Crime in New York 1865 -1913 (Hardcover)
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The Sport of Kings and the Kings of Crime - Horse Racing Politics and Organized Crime in New York 1865 -1913 (Hardcover)
Series: Sports and Entertainment
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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.
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