The Black Stallion's Filly Walter Farley, il. Milton Menasco 1952, Random House
Black Minx came into the ring held firmly by the white-coated attendants who handled all the horses up for sale. She was coal black and small. She had a quick, competent walk as she was led about the ring, and it was apparent to those who watched her that her limited size was misleading, for she had more muscle than was noticeable at first glance. Her head was light and beautiful with great breadth between sharp eyes, a slightly dished nose, a narrow muzzle and sensitive nostrils. Her only disfigurement was a short tail, so short that it was barely more than a stump.
Henry Daily, bored with life on Hopeful Farm after he retires Satan from the track, decides to buy himself a racehorse. He buys a two-year-old filly by the Black despite her dubious history (she took her last jockey through the rail, breaking his collarbone), sure he can fix her. Alec, content to stay home at the farm, isn't so sure, but in his quiet, reliable way decides not to argue but do everything he can to help his old friend achieve his goal - to have this wild, wilfull, contrary filly whose last race ended in the infield, ready to run in America's premiere classic, the Kentucky Derby. And win.
...[Alec] went back in memory to the days when Henry had taken him and the Black under his wing, when Henry had encouraged him to race the Black because he had confidence in Alec's ability to handle the stallion on the racetrack. At the time, Henry's enthusiasm had sounded just as fantastic... But it had turned out the way Henry had said it would. He had ridden the Black to victory over the best horses in the country.
First, Henry and Alec have to fix the filly's horrible ground manners, which include biting and kicking. In a sequence which is ground indelibley into the minds of anyone who reads the book, Henry finally resorts to a baked potato to cure Black Minx's willingness to bite. I won't spoil it by quoting, but that chapter alone makes the book worth reading.
While Henry is the trainer, Alec is the jockey and he quickly realizes that the filly's other issues are nothing compared to her indifference to racing. She has speed, but when Alec tries to work her faster, the filly placidly continues at the same pace as before, ignoring his urging to speed up. Henry's face, always grim, matches the winter weather of their New York state farm as he ponders how to best Black Minx and make her a racehorse.
In the meantime, Henry and Alec watch the televised races of warm-weather racing from Florida and California, where other Derby hopefuls are being honed. California darling Golden Vanity shows blistering speed in winning the Santa Anita Derby, Eastern colt Silver Jet lives up to his status as an early Derby favorite by winning the Flamingo Stakes, a filly named Lady Lee in the Louisiana Derby, and Wintertime and Eclipse in the Experimental.
An interesting book in that gruff, rough Henry has something personal on the line this time, and even loyal Alec sometimes wonders if he's seeing clearly. Farley's racing books tended to give the reader an extensive look at the competition, which creates a sense of realism, showing Henry and Alec studying the races of the horses and jockeys they'll be going up against in the Derby.
Horses Black Minx - black filly Golden Vanity - 17h chestnut colt Moonstruck - bay colt Silver Jet - grey colt Lady Lee - filly Wintertime - blood bay colt Eclipse - brown colt
More Than Courage: Real Life Stories Of Horses And Dogs And People Who Have Loved Them
Patrick Lawson, il. Earl Sherwan
1960, Whitman Publishing Company
To all the horses and dogs that have been trying to communicate with dumb humans for thousands of years, this book is affectionately dedicated. This collection of stories about horses and dogs is undoubtedly dated - the references to Native Americans as redskins and the cheerful statement that bloodhounds are not gay but solemn dogs make that clear. But there's a sort of romance to its sweeping vision of the world.
The horse relieved man of the burdens he had always had to pack upon his own back. It enabled him to plow more land and so produce more food. Its greatest gift, however, was mobility. By carrying man swiftly from one place to another, the horse helped him to increase his area of activity and speed up the interchange of knowledge. Take away the horse and history would have to be rewritten.
More to the point, the author does know animals.
As with all animals, horses have a habit of blithely disproving every statement made about them by experts. The first chapter sets up the entire book. This is to be an examination through examples of the debate between those who attribute all animal behavior to instinct and training, and those who believe animals are capable of intelligent reasoning. It's quickly evident which side the author is on. When I researched Lawson and discovered he was actually Lois Eby, it made sense. Women, like animals, have often been on the wrong side of the experts when it comes to judging intelligence and reasoning power.
The chapters switch off, one concentrating on dogs and the next on horses. Below are the horse chapters.
The Question The crowd's roar of admiration suddenly changed to a gasp of horror. The horse had whirled to face his fallen rider. He looked to them now like a maddened killer... Then an astounding thing happened. The horse paused beside the man's prone body, sniffed it, and carefully, delicately, stepped over it to trot unconcernedly toward the arena exit. (rodeo bucker Midnight)
Drumming Hoofs ...the action of cavalry horses and their courage in battle is all the more remarkable. A horse can be taught to ignore gunfire, but how can he continue to have confidence in a master who deliberately leads him into a situation where he is severely wounded. (military horses including 19th century Indian fighters Prince and Two Bits, General Sherman's horse Sam, General Meade's horse Baldy, and Alexander the Great's horse Bucephalus)
Pegasus Without Wings Kincsem's approach to the post would have shamed a milk wagon plug. Where the proud thoroughbreds paced and pranced, she plodded. Having arrived at the starting line, she just stood there, tail drooping, head down. In race after race she was left behind, while every track fan in Europe held his breath and chewed his nails. Yet somehow she always managed to win. (a blind pacer named Sleepy Tom, the jumper Snow Man, the Hungarian racehorse Kinecsem)
Enter - A Star! Fury is definitely a camera hog. On the set, he keeps edging forward to get close to the camera until he is practically hanging over the human actor's shoulder. One harassed director finally set up a dummy camera. Fury, unaware that there was no film in it, posed before it happily while the real camera shot the scenes with the rest of the cast. (The Lipizan stars of the film Ben Hur, Roy Roger's Trigger, Gene Autry's Champion, TV stars Fury and California)
About Lawson
Lois Eby grew up in California, where she fell in love with Arabian horses and nature. A writer for film, she also wrote mysteries and novels.
Other books by Patrick Lawson Star-Crossed Stallion
Star-Crossed Stallion's Big Chance Patty Lynn: Daughter Of The Rangers Patty Lynn At The Grand Canyon
"Hard Luck Stallion" - a short story about a boy trying to tame an Arabian stallion named Ajaz. July 1954 edition of the magazine Boys' Life. Basically the Star-Crossed Stallion story.
About the illustrator (1917-2002)
A native and lifelong Michigan resident, Sherwan specialized in nature and dog pictures, writing and illustrating many books and producing a popular line of canine-themed notepaper.
Books written by Sherwan Mask, The Door County Coon by Earl Sherwan (1963)
Bruno, The Bear Of Split Rock Island by Earl Sherwan (1966)
Other material about featured horses Dwight Akers wrote a 1939 book about Sleepy Tom.
Sam Savitt wrote a book called Midnight: Champion Bucking Horse about Midnight.
Rutherford George Montgomery wrote a book about Snow Man; there was also a movie and a Breyer model.
Fury, of course, was a TV show based on a book, Albert G. Miller's series. He was also made into a Breyer model.
Only 1 entry so far to winWild Horse Annie And The Last Of The Mustangs! The deadline to enter is July 4, 2010. To enter, just leave a comment on any post from June 2nd's to July 4th's.
And a quick reference on mustangs in general - the BLM, the U.S. agency that oversees the mustangs, offers online adoptions. For anyone who fantasizes about what you'd buy if you had the money, time, or remotely the skills to buy a wild horse, it's kinda addictive.
And a review which has little to do with mustangs except that the main characters are from the West, and their racehorses were originally wild. I'm not sure how that worked out with the Jockey Club when they went to the track, but who would dream of asking difficult questions of a horse book?
Tamarlane, Strange Son Of Desert Storm
Logan Forster, il. Gerald McCann
1959, Dodd, Mead & Company
...the gate crashed open and a black and a gray body half reared in the openings, hung suspended for a fleeting instant, then flashed into the sunlight.
This third in a four-book series opens with Ponce Stuart's two champion racehorses, the black mareDesert Storm and the grey colt Victorio, in a match race at BelmontPark.The mare, four months pregnant, brilliantly beats the grey but breaks down in the stretch.Her people - owner/jockey Ponce, trainer Gabriel Dreen and Ponce's family Delgadito and Joto (aka The Old Apache) - rally around, knowing that the mare has already survived a broken legs years earlier, and rig up a sling to keep her on her feet until the bone can heal.
To interject - the mare being raced while pregnant seems bizarre, the breakdown scene is heartbreaking, and the scenario that she is saved from death by a sling and cast seems dubious.Onward.
Shaken by the mare's tragedy and his own hard fall, Ponce decides to give up the track and racing.His plans are quickly derailed by an ailing racehorse breeder who presses him to buy the cream of his final crop of young racers.Ponce, pressured by his sharp-eyed kinsmen Joto to not run away, agrees, and regains his strength and courage as he campaigns the new horses, particularly the brilliant gray filly Sage Queen.But even as Ponce forms a new partnership with the Queen, something ominous seems to hang around his new Sunset Stables.When Desert Storm foals, Ponce is devastated.The foal, the colt on which he's hung all his dreams, has a clubfoot.
Three of the legs were perfectly formed, long and straight, with the big knees and ankles of all foals.The fourth, the right foreleg, was the same except for one thing.From ankle to hoof it was a solid, shapeless, queerly twisted lump.
After the first shock, Ponce settles into an angry drive to succeed with Sage Queen, avoiding his beloved Desert Storm and her failure of a foal.His rage pushes him to ride recklessly, heedlessly, with predictable results.When he finally reconciles himself to the deformed foal, he discovers an unusually mellow personality - and an uncanny ability to run sound despite his handicap.It begins to look as if Ponce's bold prediction, before the foal's birth, that this colt would run in the Kentucky Derby, might come true after all.
Despite the attractive illustrations and pleasingly over-the-top plots, Forster's books are plodding. The writing style is overripe, with a few too many trips to the Apache heritage well, and neither human nor equine characters seem particularly real.With one exception - Tamarlane's lazy, oddball personality does stand out in comparison to his more standard-issue parents, the brave mare and the wild stallion.
Logan Forster
I could find out little for certain about the author.There are hints that he was born in Salem, Oregon and he apparently lived in Colorado as an adult.According to the author notes in Mountain Stallion he served 6 years in the Navy, worked a variety of jobs, and attended the University of Colorado. According to a postscript by the author, the real clubfoot racehorse Assault was the inspiration for Tamarlane's story, but his own grey Arabian stallion Mighwar was the basis for his personality.
When it comes to stubbornness, feigned idiocy, laziness and complete lovableness, Mighwar has no equal on this earth.
Also, Forster mentions in the author's note in Tamarlane that he based the mareDesert Storm on the racehorse Busher, a filly whose career was cut short by injury and who became a famous broodmare.
Books
Ponce series
Desert Storm (1955)
Mountain Stallion (1958)
Tamarlane, Strange Son Of Desert Storm (1959)
Revenge (1960)
Stand-alone horse book
Run Fast! Run Far! (1962)
Non-horse
Proud Land (1954) - appears to be about an Apache chief
Anger In The Wind (1974) - appears to be a romantic saga about the early West
Odds and Ends
The full text of Mountain Stallion is available at Internet Archives
Calvin Borel takes a third Derby aboard Super Saver in yet another Kentucky Derby I forgot to watch (most years I completely forget until, oh, 8pm) The horse will run in the next race of the long-idle Triple Crown, Baltimore's Preakness Stakes, on May 15th, and I will remember that if only because NBC will broadcast a 90-minute look at the 2010 Rolex **** immediately before their Preakness coverage. So the Rolex program starts at 3pm, then they switch over to the Preakness at 4:30. Assuming the inevitable hockey playoff game doesn't go over. Which it will. NBC has a nice incentive to renew the Derby broadcast contract, which expires this year - the 2010 had the most viewers in 21 years. Just not me.
In other interesting racing news, the 2009 Horse Of The Year took a second loss last Friday. Rachel Alexandra lost the La Troienne (formerly the Louisville Distaff Stakes; the original La Troienne was renamed the Eight Belles Stakes in 2009) to Unrivaled Belle. She was second to Zardana in the March 13 New Orleans Ladies. Meanwhile, the Eight Belles Stakes was won by a filly whose name rivals the Derby winner's - Buckleupbuttercup. The Kentucky Oaks - the Derby for fillies, essentially - went to Blind Luck.
In other eventing news, Paul Tapner and Inonothing won the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trialslast weekend; Oliver Townend, who had the ugly fall at Rolex, is reportedly recovering from a cracked collarbone, sternum and ribs; and here in New Jersey, the Jersey Fresh 3-star and 2-star events begin on Thursday, May 6.
And because I realize that the whole news aspect of this blog is rather beside the point, if not actually suspect, a review of an actual horse book. Nice painting (can't find artist) but oh, the nostalgia of those superlong eighties polos.
Pretty Penny Farm
Joanne Hoppe
1987, Troll Books
"She's a creep!Sophie Chmielewski is a fat slob, that's what!Bouncing boobs!That's her nickname.Bouncing boobs!"Beth's voice rose higher and higher."What are you trying to do to me?Everybody makes fun of her.I'll be the laughingstock of the school!"
15-year-old Beth Bridgewater does not react well to the news that her mother has not only arranged for them to spend the summer in New Hampshire on a farm, far from Beth's sleek crew of mean girls, she's also arranged for the queen bees' main target to join them there.Beth's a coward, a sidekick who frequently congratulates herself for being silently 'uncomfortable' with the way pals Amy and Tory treat Sophie, but she has no intention of joining the fat girl on the hot seat.And she knows very well what her "friends" will make of her spending time with the outcast.Parental plans prevail, however, sweetened with the promise that Beth, who loves to ride, can rent a horse for the whole summer.
Let's recap.Beth pulls a Grade A meltdown and says ugly, vicious things about a classmate while screaming like a banshee at her parents, and is rewarded with a horse.
Ah, for parents like that.Back to the plot.
At the farm, Beth falls immediately for a spirited chestnut Thoroughbred whose owner Dave, the secretive college-aged son of the farm owner, reluctantly agrees to let her have him for the summer.Sophie, who Beth is pointedly ignoring, hesitantly agrees to use the quiet mare Dolly.
Charmin' tossed his head, putting pressure on the bit.He did a little sideways dance as she kept him in check."Wanta run, don't you, boy?"His energy seemed to flow into her knees as she tightened them against him."Go on, then."She tried to ease him into a canter, but he quickly broke from it and they pounded up the gentle incline.The horse took great bounding leaps into the air.Exhilerated, she crouched lower in the saddle, her heart thudding against his neck as he gathered speed.With so much power under her, she was on the edge of control.
This little 'canter' turns into a chance for Beth to ride Charmin' at the local racetrack, where a high school friend of Dave's is preparing a filly for a race.She has a ball, but when Dave finds out he's angry.In fact, he's unusually angry every time someone mentions how fast Charmin' is, and he becomes downright prickly whenever anyone mentions how odd it is that Dave won the horse in a bet during his first semester at the University of Virginia - and that the horse's former owner, a wealthy family of racehorse breeders, gave him up.It becomes pretty clear where that plot is headed.
Meanwhile, Beth is slowly, reluctantly and with maximum nastiness coming to appreciate that Sophie is - wait for it - human too.Beth suspiciously listens as her mother draws the uneasy fat girl into revealing that her mother is dead, that they used to live in a friendly Polish-American neighborhood, that her and her father are very close, etc.Could it be that this freakish girl could be more than the sum of her 30 extra pounds?Really, Beth actually calculates how much excess fat Sophie's carrying around, and likens it to a toddler or 6 bags of sugar.Luckily for Beth's growth as a human, she does finally break down and befriend the fat girl, who accepts her overtures with a grace that seems either mentally lacking or superhuman, considering their prior relationship.Together, they break the case of Why Is Dave So Cranky All The Time? and Why Is Charmin' So Freaky Fast If His Racehorse Breeder Owners Gambled Him Away?
A pretty cover, but a disappointing book.The action scenes are not bad, the atmosphere is workable, the main character is certainly strong (if repulsive) but it just doesn't work out.Too many odd bits of dialogue interupt the action, and far too many minor characters clutter the stage.Charmin' is limited to being a plot device, and Sophie isn't even given that much respect; she's treated as a vehicle for Beth's personal growth, meekly acquiescing to her hosts' decision to put her on a diet and even change her name.
Horse oddities - it seems odd that nobody questions handing a 15-year-old kid a young Thoroughbred stallion as a pet.
Note
I googled "Chmielewski" and discovered it means, basically, 'one from the place of the hops.'Interesting, given that the author's name is Hoppe.
Horses
Dolly - bay mare
Charmin' - chestnut stallion with blaze
Josie's Babe - racehorse
Books
Hoppe wrote only four books, all teen thrillers. Only Pretty Penny Farm has a horse aspect.
Dream Spinner
The Lesson Is Murder
April Spell
Author
Joanne Hoppe died in 2001.She was an English teacher in Greenwich, CT for 21 years.
Publisher
Troll was established in 1958, based in NJ. The once healthy company entered a fatal run through a series of buyers starting in 1995, when Penguin parent company Pearson bought 49%. At some point it became Troll Communications. Canadian megacompany Torstar Corporation bought it in 1997, and it went to private equity firm Willis Stein in 1999. They sold the company's book fair operation, once a rival to Scholastic's, to Scholastic in 2001. The remainder was sold to a private equity fund, Quad Venture Partners LLC in 2002. Troll filed for bankruptcy in 2003, owning over $3 million to its printer.
One of the most exciting days of my childhood was finding the entire Black Stallion series at a thrift shop. They were the 1977 trade paperbacks, which had beautiful covers (I'd love to know who the illustrator was), and I must have read each one dozens of times. When I dug them out of my parents' attic a few years ago, they'd been read to pieces. The covers were delicately attached to their bindings, the spines were cracked, the pages honorably battle-worn. No matter. I lovingly transported them and their layers of dust home, and they now live in a safe bookshelf alongside some boxes of my childhood Breyers, and amidst my other great second-hand Black Stallion find, a collection of first editions I stumbled over in a church rummage sale years later.
So it's safe to say I'm a little biased in favor of the Farley books. Just a warning.
The tribe of the horse-crazy has its own version of what constitutes a classic book.Those who dream of riding in the Maclay Finals cherish The Monday Horses.Wannabe cowgirls love Glen Rounds and Will James.Social climbers love the gracious plenty of C.W. Anderson, whose little characters never just had a horse, they had Man O'War's more promising grandson.The depraved have a lingering kitchsy fondness for the sort of horsey series where girls named Stevie can't decide what's more important, prepping Algonquin Star Of Wonder for the big show, helping their BFF adjust to her diabetes or winning back their boyfriend from the mean girl with the super-expensive horse.
And the non-horse-obsessed world has its own version of classic books with horse themes.The Red Pony is the most obvious case of disconnect - a book about a horse that's actually as much about the horse as it is about the 2004 presidential race, and whose ending has caused serious cases of nausea in generations of innocent children.Other classics - Smoky, My Friend Flicka, Black Beauty- are Classics, capital C.But they're not particularly amenable to younger readers because of the sophistication and density of the writing, as well as the relentless realism built into the stories.They may be marketed as children's books, but they were not written for children and it shows.
One place where both worlds come together is in the 1941 book The Black Stallion. I've never heard of a horse nut who dismissed this book's position as a classic even if it wasn't in their personal top 10, and its success as a 69-year-old book that's still in print (and the connection with a critically acclaimed film) seems to have given it respectability in the wider world.
The series as a whole is an intense fantasy, far more wild than any other horse book. Alec Ramsay is shipwrecked on a desert island with a magnificent killer stallion who he tames, takes back to Queens, and rides in a match race with the world's best racers.Later, he founds a Thoroughbred breeding and training farm, wins the Kentucky Derby with the stallion's first filly, the Triple Crown with his first colt, the Hambletonian with his trotting colt, becomes lost and amnesiac in the American West, encounters an evil magician in the Florida Everglades, travels to the Middle East and becomes enmeshed in various Arabic feuds, etc.This is go-for-broke horse book plotting at its most fearless.Nothing in the Black Stallion series is remotely believable.But the books work.They've endured for over fifty years because they're beautifully written for children.Clear, simple writing, solid characters and a fantasy which is completely grounded in realistic details forces belief.Wonderful, and classic by any definition
The Black Stallion
Walter Farley
1941, Random House
Alec heard a whistle - shrill, loud, clear, unlike anything he'd ever heard before.He saw a mighty black horse rear on its hind legs, its forelegs striking out into the air. A white scarf was tied across its eyes.The crowd broke and ran.
Alexander 'Alec' Ramsay, Jr. watches in disbelief as a huge black stallion is, with a great deal of trouble, loaded onto the tramp steamer taking him home from a summer in India.The boy has learned to ride while visiting his Uncle Ralph in Bombay, and has fallen in love with horses, but knows his chances to ride back home in New York City will be few.As the Drake steams on toward England, Alec cautiously befriends the furious horse, whose constant assault on the walls of his makeshift stall ring through the ship.And then a storm sinks the boat, and horse and boy are stranded on an island together.
When rescue arrives, Alec and the Black are bonded, but the horse is still savage and wild with others.Alec's parents look askance at this scary horse, but let him keep him down at a neighbor's rickety barn, along with a huckster's tired grey gelding, Napoleon.The neighbor is Henry Dailey, a former racehorse jockey and trainer.
There they stopped and waited for Henry.Finally he showed up - a short, chunky man with large shoulders.He came toward them walking in jerky, bowlegged strides.His white shirt tails flapped in the night wind.He wiped a large hand across his mouth."Right with you," he yelled.
The Black promptly jumps out of his pasture and goes running off into the dawn streets of Flushing with Henry and Alec in pursuit.Despite the race which follows at the end of the book, this has always seemed the most exciting chapter.The idea of this huge wild horse roaming city streets, certain to get into trouble if he meets anyone but Alec, is haunting.As are Alec's midnight rides at BelmontPark.
Suddenly the Black bolted.His action shifted marvelously as his powerful legs swept over the ground.Fleet hoofbeats made a clattering roar in Alec's ears.The stallion's speed became greater and greater.Alec's body grew numb, the terrific speed made it hard for him to breathe.Once again the track became a blur, and he was conscious only of the endless white fence slipping by.
But, of course, they do make it to Chicago for the great race between California wonder-horse Sun Raider and Kentucky champion Cyclone.The gray Sun Raider is nearly as large and savage as the Black, and the two horses start a fight at the start that leaves the Black bleeding.And then the starter, not noticing Alec start to climb down to check on his horse's leg, sends them off.
This single book sparked 17 sequels, a film, a TV series, four Breyer models and a stuffed animal, a dinner theater attraction in Orlando, and has recently given rise to a literacy project aimed at encouraging first graders to read.
Zenyatta wins the Breeders' Cup. Jubilation. The bay filly came from behind, went the long way around, won the race, broke Personal Ensign's record of consecutive victories and basically blew everyone away, becoming the first filly to win the Cup. Added to the year had by the other large bay filly, Rachel Alexandra, this is simply cool.
And a list of books featuring racing fillies: The Black Stallion's Filly by Walter Farley Born To Run by Blanche Chenry Perrin Desert Storm by Logan Forster Sweet Running Filly by Pat Johnson and Barbara Van Tuyl (series) A Horse Called Wonder by Joanna Campbell (series)
Nonfiction Ruffian: Burning From The Start by Jane Schwartz Personal Ensign by Bill Heller (Thoroughbred Legends series)
C.W. Anderson His beautifully illustrated nonfiction books about horses and Thoroughbreds often contain stories and drawings of racing fillies. Two examples:
C.W. Anderson's Complete Book of Horses And Horsemanship -a portrait of the mare Busher with her first foal A Touch Of Greatness includes chapters on Dawn Play and Bee Mac (who suffered a bizarre fate during a storm) and a discussion of 1943 as a year of brilliant fillies. Also given a chapter is the broodmare Marguerite, dam of Gallant Fox
Martin wasn't listening.He lifted the colt's head against his chest and rubbed its neck and sides."Come on, little fellow," he whispered."You're going to grow up and be a big horse someday - a trotter."
Martin Dennis loves trotting horses.His father breeds and trains Standardbreds, dreaming of one day reaching the harness world's biggest race, the Hambletonian, and Martin dreams right along with him.But while his father's hopes are pinned on the promising black colt Master Peter, Martin believes in his little orphan foal Good Luck.Since no one knows if his dam was registered, Good Luck's prospects for a trotting career are dim, but Martin is determined to make his colt a harness horse.He has some trouble -
It was not until he unsnapped the rope and picked up the lines that he ran into trouble.No matter how he tried he could not get Good Luck to walk away from him.Every time he stepped behind him and picked up the lines the colt turned and came toward him, nuzzling his hands and pockets for carrots or oats.
- but for the most part, Good Luck learns easily and Martin has high hopes of tracking down his dam's papers through a slippery horseman named Gus Brown.When tragedy strikes, Martin feels pressured to re-ignite his father's enthusiasm for horses, and suggests a trip to nearby Goshen to watch the harness world's biggest race, the Hambletonian.There, father and son meet the famous names of harness racing: Ben White, Bion Shively, Sep Palin, Harry Pownall, Fred Eagen, and watch the race itself.Upon their return home, matters with the elusive Gus reach a crisis, and Good Luck ends up racing for the first time.
A well-written, enjoyable old horse book with a vivid portrait of harness racing and beautiful Paul Brown illustrations.Martin's little brother Cal is a wonder of tough-hearted childhood; his favorite strategy when he's annoyed at his older brother is to hopefully suggest that someone or something is dead.Even the villain Gus Brown is drawn intriguingly; a skillful driver and careful horseman, he is described as having a weakness for crooked schemes, but an honesty about caring for his horses.
Horses
Voline - Standardbred mare
Lady Luck - Standardbred mare
Good Luck - bay Standardbred colt with white stripe (Lady Luck x Good Cheer)
Master Peter - black Standardbred colt (Voline x Master Mind)
Peter Volo - Standardbred stallion
Master Mind - Standardbred stallion
Florita - chestnut Standardbred filly
Real Horses
Iron Prince - brown Standardbred colt
Crystal Hanover - Standardbred filly in Hambletonian
Sharp Note - Standardbred colt in Hambletonian
Duke of Lullwater - Standardbred colt in Hambletonian
There was a short documentary film on Bion Shively's victory,Old Man In A Hurry.
Alma Sheppard
Martin, arguing for the right to race his colt, uses Alma Sheppard as an example of a child who raced harness horses.In 1937, she drove Dean Hanover to a record 1:58.
Salute C.W. Anderson, author and illustrator 1940, The Macmillan Company
Peter is a small boy living on a farm in New York state when the famous racehorse War Admiral comes to nearby Saratoga for a race.Peter adores Thoroughbreds, having read all the stories of Man O'War and Exterminator, and he longs to see the race.When his father takes him, he gets more than he bargained for when he becomes the owner of a broken-down racehorse.
Gorgeously fantastic story where a little boy with almost no riding experience rides and rehabs a former racehorse.Lovely illustrations, dreamy story of a child's dream come true, with enough details to make it convincing.Perfectly suited to a child, with enough truth to make it attractive to an adult.For instance, the trainer who gave Peter his horse tells him
Don't ever sell an old horse that is no longer useful to you.If you do, you may someday see a horse who has run his heart out for you pulling a junk wagon.A thoroughbred is as proud as a man - prouder, maybe, and don't think his heart can't break.... if you can't afford to put an old campaigner out to pasture the rest of his life, then you must put him away as mercifully as possible - or else do what I did with Mohawk (ie, he gave him to the boy).
Other Books (picture) A Pony For Linda The Crooked Colt Pony For Three Lonesome Little Colt
Other Books Bobcat High Courage The Horse of Hurricane Hill Afraid To Ride Phantom, Son Of The Gray Ghost A Filly For Joan Great Heart Another Man O'War The Outlaw
Billy And Blaze Blaze And The Gypsies Blaze And The Forest Fire Blaze Finds The Trail Blaze And Thunderbolt Blaze And The Mountain Lion Blaze And The IndianCave Blaze And The Lost Quarry Blaze And The Gray Spotted Pony Blaze Shows The Way Blaze Finds Forgotten Roads
Other Books (nonfiction) Tomorrow’s Champions Horses Are Folks The Smashers Thoroughbreds Heads Up, Heels Down Deep Through The Heart Sketchbook Twenty Gallant Horses Complete Book Of Horses And Horsemanship
PS: NBC will broadcast their one-hour coverage of the Rolex **** on Saturday, May 16 at 3:30. It was originally supposed to air today, but their hockey coverage ran over. The Preakness Stakes coverage will begin that same day on NBC at 5pm, post time 6:15pm.
The filly Rachel Alexandra won the Kentucky Oaks, the 'filly' version of the Derby, by a record 20 1/4 lengths.Her owner, 75-year-old Dolphus Morrison, has drawn attention to himself in recent days by his gender-based reasons for not running his filly in the Derby. He apparently made a few early comments about not wanting to run his filly in the Derby due to her gender and then, when the press pushed a little on that, got defensive and stubborn.
"I don't think a stallion should be messed up by the occasional really, really outstanding filly. They should run on their own."
"Stallions should run against stallions because the Triple Crown races are the showcase for the future stallions of our industry, and they should not be messed up by the occasional really, really outstanding filly."
"I thought it was dumb to come right behind Eight Belles with something that possibly could cause that kind of problem... Eight Belles had the physical (attributes) to compete in the Derby, which she did. One bad step got her.”
“I’m kind of weird. I think the Derby is a colts' race and it’s there to showcase the horses that are the top potential stallions. It’s kind of stupid for some jerk with a filly to screw that up. I also just don’t like the idea of 20 horses clang-banging her and knocking each other’s brains out in that first 200 or 300 yards trying to get to that first turn.”
Should the filly have run today with the boys? I certainly don't know. Maybe the sex issue is just a cover for an owner who thinks his filly would be outclassed purely on speed for the big race. But I vastly prefer trainer Hal Wiggins' comment about Rachel Alexandra to the New York Daily News.
"This is the type of horse you're always looking for. I'm just so glad she finally came along."
Fillies who won the Kentucky Derby Regret in 1915 Genuine Risk in 1980 Winning Colors in 1988
About.com lists all the fillies that have raced in the Derby, and their results here
Eight Belles was, of course, the most recent filly to run in the classic. Her death last year after a catastrophic injury just beyond the finish line shook the Derby, which had been unusually lucky in never seeing a fatal accident, and put new life into discussions of racetrack safety and drug use. The 2008 Derby winner, Big Brown, was on a regular steroid schedule that many think allowed the colt, whose notoriously bad hooves led to his early retirement that fall, stay sound enough to race.
The filly has been remembered this year at Churchill Downs with a race named after her on the card, and eight bells will be rung before the Derby.
Owner Rick Porter and trainer Larry Jones are back in the Derby with the colt Friesan Fire.
Fiction
There is Walter Farley's book about a filly training for Kentucky Derby in The Black Stallion's Filly.
Blanche Chenry Perrin's Born To Run also centers around a filly's pursuit of the classic.
And there is an entry in the Thoroughbred series by Joanna Campbell, Wonder's First Race. Other Kentucky Derby children's fiction includes Kentucky Derby Winner by Isabel McLennan McMeekin (1949) about the first Derby, and Old Bones, The Wonder Horse by Mildred Mastin Pace (1955) about Exterminator, the unlikely winner of the 1918 Derby.
The latter book, illustrated by Wesley Dennis, is a very nice story of a classic underdog, and much more appealing in a way than the similar Seabiscuit story.
Ruth Sanderson paperback from the 1970s.
The most recent paperback edition.
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