FUSAICHI PEGASUS WON THE KENTUCKY DERBY RACE IN 2000. THE FIRST FAVORED HORSE TO WIN SINCE 1979. That win set off a riveting tale of a global race to acquire the horse for breeding. A tale that involved the richest horse farms in the world. A race that culminated in the greatest price ever paid for a racehorse. No other racehorse has ever generated such interest or price. This true story details the personal journey of James Clay. An attorney, working on the sunny side of the Big Island of Hawaii in the provincial town of Kailua-Kona, when a phone call about a golf game with a Japanese stranger set the wheels in motion for this engrossing tale. He ended up representing the Japanese owner of "Pegasus". The only non-Japanese representative on a small team of Japanese that travelled on an 18 month journey circling the globe to complete the largest sale in the history of thoroughbred horse racing. A story not so much about horse racing, rather about the racing industry, controlled at the top by the richest horse farms in the world. Sheik Maktoum of Dubai, John Magnier, owner of Coolmore Farm in Ireland, along with Ashford Stud in Kentucky and Coolmore Australia, the largest and richest farm in the world, Robert Clay, owner of Three Chimneys in Kentucky where Seattle Slew stood. Terry Yoshida of Shadai Farm in Japan. Billionaires. All jousting for the privilege of purchasing Pegasus to control breeding for the next 20 years. Come into this rarified world of private jets to California, Kentucky, New York, Paris, Ireland and Japan as the author attended three winners' circles. How he set up a revolutionary auction for the sale of Pegasus, complete with envelopes under the door. How he had to resurrect the final sale after being mislead as to the ownership of Pegasus causing the richest contract to be cancelled. Learn about syndication and how it affects the price in todays racing world and why the first Triple Crown and Breeders' Cup Classic winner, American Pharaoh and Triple Crown winner Justify will never run again.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of the runaway phenomenon Unbroken comes a universal underdog story about the horse who came out of nowhere to become a legend. 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. Praise for Seabiscuit “Fascinating . . . Vivid . . . A first-rate piece of storytelling, leaving us not only with a vivid portrait of a horse but a fascinating slice of American history as well.”—The New York Times “Engrossing . . . Fast-moving . . . More than just a horse’s tale, because the humans who owned, trained, and rode Seabiscuit are equally fascinating. . . . [Laura Hillenbrand] shows an extraordinary talent for describing a horse race so vividly that the reader feels like the rider.”—Sports Illustrated “REMARKABLE . . . MEMORABLE . . . JUST AS COMPELLING TODAY AS IT WAS IN 1938.”—The Washington Post

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A vivid portrait of America’s greatest stallion, the larger-than-life men who raced and bred him, and the dramatic times in which they lived.”—Geraldine Brooks, author of Horse The powerful true story of the champion Thoroughbred racehorse who gained international fame in the tumultuous Civil War–era South, and became the most successful sire in American racing history The early days of American horse racing were grueling. Four-mile races, run two or three times in succession, were the norm, rewarding horses who brandished the ideal combination of stamina and speed. The stallion Lexington, named after the city in Kentucky where he was born, possessed these winning qualities, which pioneering Americans prized. Lexington shattered the world speed record for a four-mile race, showing a war-torn nation that the extraordinary was possible even in those perilous times. He would continue his winning career until deteriorating eyesight forced his retirement in 1855. But once his groundbreaking achievements as a racehorse ended, his role as a sire began. Horses from his bloodline won more money than the offspring of any other Thoroughbred—an annual success that led Lexington to be named America’s leading sire an unprecedented sixteen times. Yet with the Civil War raging, Lexington’s years at a Kentucky stud farm were far from idyllic. Confederate soldiers ran amok, looting freely and kidnapping horses from the top stables. They soon focused on the prized Lexington and his valuable progeny. Kim Wickens, a lawyer and dressage rider, became fascinated by this legendary horse when she learned that twelve of Thoroughbred racing's thirteen Triple Crown winners descended from Lexington. Wickens spent years meticulously researching the horse and his legacy—and with Lexington, she presents an absorbing, exciting account that transports readers back to the raucous beginning of American horse racing and introduces them to the stallion at its heart.

This is a new release of the original 1945 edition.

From the author of 'Unbroken' - a major motion picture releasing in 2015 - this is the bestselling true story of three men and their dreams for a racehorse, Seabiscuit. In 1938 one figure received more press coverage than Mussolini, Hitler or Roosevelt. He was a cultural icon and a world-class athlete - and an undersized, crooked-legged racehorse by the name of Seabiscuit. Misunderstood and mishandled, Seabiscuit had spent seasons floundering in the lowest ranks of racing until a chance meeting of three men. Together, they created a champion. This is a story which topped the bestseller charts for over two years; a riveting tale of grit, grace, luck and an underdog's stubborn determination to win against all odds. Made into a major motion picture starring Toby Maguire and Jeff Daniels.

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.

Horseracing, thoroughbred breeding and gambling on racing are global industries worth several hundred billion dollars. They are also industries facing serious challenges, from the rise of alternative forms of leisure gambling to concerns about the ethical treatment of animals in all equestrian sports. This book offers a broad-ranging examination of the contemporary horseracing industry, from geographical, economic, social, ethical and environmental perspectives. The book draws on in-depth, mixed-method research into the racing and breeding industries in the US, Australia, the UK, Canada and New Zealand, and includes comparative material on other key racing centres, such as Ireland, Singapore and Hong Kong. It explores the economic structure of the global racing business, including comparisons with other major international sport businesses and other equestrian sports. It examines the social and cultural roots of the sport through its association with, and impact on, rural places, communities and environments from Kentucky to Newmarket – highlighting racing’s particular blend of tradition and scientific and technological innovation. The book also explores the ethical issues at the heart of horseracing, from reproduction to the use of the whip, and the inescapable tension between the horse as an instrumentally valuable commodity and the horse as an intrinsically valuable animal with needs and interests. The Global Horseracing Industry concludes by considering alternative futures for this major international sports business. The book is illuminating reading for anybody with an interest in sport, business, cultural geography, animal studies, or environmental studies.