In Tales from the Triple Crown, award-winning racing writer Steve Haskin takes readers behind the scenes to introduce them to the trainers, jockeys, and horses seeking the world’s most elusive sports prize. Feel the keen disappointment of trainer Bud Delp after Spectacular Bid loses his Triple Crown bid because of a stray safety pin. Witness Angel Cordero’s frustration after winning the Kentucky Derby aboard Spend a Buck, only to encounter a series of misadventures on his way home. Mourn the untimely loss of Barbaro in a Preakness that shook the racing world. Their stories are among the twenty-four—including three that are new to this paperback edition—that bring a new dimension to the repertoire of Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes reporting. Horse racing is no stranger to triumph and tragedy, and in Tales from the Triple Crown Haskin shares both the adrenaline charge of victory and the disappointment of close losses. Haskin’s personal involvement, keen eye for a good story, and engaging writing style make readers feel like they are living the moments with him.

The true story of a forgotten champion: “Bringing Sir Barton out from the shadows, Jennifer Kelly restores him to a richly-deserved spotlight.” ―Dorothy Ours, author of Man o’ War He was always destined to be a champion. Royally bred, with English and American classic winners in his pedigree, Sir Barton shone from birth, dubbed the “king of them all.” But after a winless two-year-old season and a near-fatal illness, uncertainty clouded the start of Sir Barton’s three-year-old season. Then his surprise victory in America’s signature race, the Kentucky Derby, started him on the road to history, where he would go on to dominate the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, completing America’s first Triple Crown. His wins inspired the ultimate chase for greatness in American horse racing and established an elite group that would grow to include legends like Citation, Secretariat, and American Pharoah. After a series of dynamic wins in 1920, popular opinion tapped Sir Barton as the best challenger for the wonder horse Man o’ War, and demanded a match race to settle once and for all which horse was the greatest. That duel would cement the reputation of one horse for all time and diminish the reputation of the other for the next century—until now. Sir Barton and the Making of the Triple Crown is the first book to focus on Sir Barton, his career, and his historic impact on horse racing. Jennifer S. Kelly uses extensive research and historical sources to examine this champion’s life and achievements. Kelly charts how Sir Barton broke track records, scored victories over other champions, and sparked the yearly pursuit of Triple Crown glory.

Achieve long-term business success—without sacrificing quarterly profits Triple Crown Leadership provides a step-by-step model for building organizations that are Excellent (high performing), Ethical (transparent), and Enduring (stands the test of time). It explains how to protect your organization’s values, reputation, and profitability by focusing not only on culture, but organizational character; seeking solutions to challenges from all levels of personnel; and skillfully blending a “hard-edged” demand for results with a “soft-edged” spirit of collaboration. Bob Vanourek has held senior leadership positions at Pitney Bowes, Avery Division, Sensormatic, Recognition Equipment, and Monarch Marketing. Gregg Vanourek is the founder of Far Horizon, a leadership and personnel development firm with offices in the U.S. and Europe.

The descendent of Man o' War and War Admiral, Affirmed won all three stages of the Triple Crown in 1978. Sahadi draws on interviews with jockey Steve Cauthen, the family of owner Louis Wolfson, and many more to tell the story of this courageous horse.

Jefferson Hinkley is back in the newest thriller in the Dick Francis tradition, this time on a special mission to the United States to investigate a conspiracy involving the biggest horse races in the country. Jeff Hinkley, investigator for the British Horseracing Authority, has been seconded to the US Federal Anti-Corruption in Sports Agency (FACSA) where he has been asked to find a mole in their organization—an informant who is passing on confidential information to those under suspicion in American racing. At the Kentucky Derby, Jeff joins the FACSA team in a raid on a horse trainer’s barn at Churchill Downs, but the bust is a disaster, and someone ends up dead. Then, on the morning of the Derby itself, three of the most favored horses in the field fall sick. These suspicious events can be no coincidence. In search of answers, Jeff goes undercover as a groom on the backstretch at Belmont Park racetrack in New York. But he discovers far more than he was bargaining for: corrupt individuals who will stop at nothing—including murder—to capture the most elusive prize in world sport, the Triple Crown.

A gripping look at the great duel between Affirmed, the last horse to win the Triple Crown—comprised of the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes—and his archrival, Alydar. From the moment they first galloped head-to-head in Saratoga Springs, the two chestnut colts showed they were the stuff of racing legend. Alydar, all muscle with a fearsome closing kick, was already the popular favorite to win the Kentucky Derby. Affirmed, deceptively laid-back streamlined elegance, was powered forward by his steely determination not to settle for second place. In the Sport of Kings, the Triple Crown is the most valued prize, requiring a horse to win not just one race, but three: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes. And 1978 would not be just for the record books, but also one of the greatest dramas ever played out in the racing world. There were names to conjure with, worthy of the Sport of Kings. The bloodline of Native Dancer. The teen wonderboy jockey Steve Cauthen. The once unbeatable Calumet Farm—the Damn Yankees of the racing world—now in eclipse and hoping for a comeback. The newcomer Harbor View Farm—owned by brash financier Louis Wolfson, who wouldn’t let even a conviction and a prison sentence for securities violations stand in the way of his dreams of glory. And the racetracks themselves: Belmont, Saratoga, Pimlico. And, of course, Churchill Downs. It has been thirty-five years since Affirmed and Alydar fought for the Triple Crown, thirty-five years when no other horse has won it. Duel for the Crown brings this epic battle to life. Not just two magnificent Thoroughbreds but the colorful human personalities surrounding them, caught up in an ever-intensifying battle of will and wits that lasted until the photo finish of the final Triple Crown race . . . and Alydar and Affirmed leaped into the history books.

In more than a century of American Thoroughbred racing, only thirteen horses have won the Triple Crown (the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes, all won in the same season). Veteran turf writer and racing historian Edward L. Bowen takes us through the rich history of one of the most formidable and exciting challenges in all of sport. Bowen covers the trainers, owners, and jockeys who etched their names into the annals of thoroughbred racing, and the “lucky thirteen” who captured all three jewels of the Triple Crown, racing’s most prestigious prize.