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Maryland Steeplechasing
9780738542003
Regular price $24.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
Each spring, thousands of spectators clamber onto hillsides with picnics and binoculars to watch steeplechase racing, a fast-paced equine sport born out of the fundamentals of fox hunting. Since 1894, when the first Maryland Hunt Cup was run, the month of April has been synonymous with steeplechase racing. Starting with the Elkridge-Harford Hunt races and continuing with the National Steeplechase Association– sanctioned Big Three races—the My Lady's Manor, Grand National, and Maryland Hunt Cup—the countryside buzzes with horses and fans every Saturday throughout the month. Images of America: Maryland Steeplechasing traces the history of Maryland's other triple crown of racing, bringing together images of Maryland's three most-coveted races for the first time in one volume.
Kentucky Handicap Horse Racing
9781626194694
Regular price $21.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
In a handicap, horses are assigned weights based on their past performances as a way to try to create evenly matched fields. The better the horse, the heavier the weight assigned. In the United States, handicaps once accounted for the majority of stakes races and were known to boast large purses attracting the leading horses of the day. Kentucky-bred horses such as Discovery, Equipoise and Kelso won under the heaviest of weights, dominating the handicap division year after year, and were immortalized in the hall of fame. These equine stars brought recognition to the Sport of Kings and became renowned athletes for their courage, fortitude and durability. Join author and turf historian Melanie Greene as she recounts the harrowing tales of these noble steeds.
Central Florida Thoroughbreds
9781626190757
Regular price $21.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
Back in the 1940s, when Florida was the Wild West of the East, a few hearty souls dared to think they might compete with the finest, blue-blooded racehorses and their breeders with their own stock raised among palm trees, sand and alligators. Florida was the cracker cowboy state, and cowponies were expected. But the scoffers failed to realize what the wealth of limestone, the power of warm sunshine year round and the cold, crystalline freshwater springs that are the gems of central Florida would mean to the raising of healthy, competitive animals. When the first Thoroughbreds produced in Florida, admittedly small and scrappy, began to outrun their pedigrees, the nation of Thoroughbred breeders had to take notice. Join author Charlene R. Johnson as she details the fascinating equine history of central Florida.
Virginia Horse Racing
9781596294394
Regular price $21.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
Virginia, mother of presidents, is also the mother of American horse racing. From the very beginning, Virginians have risked it all on the track as eagerly as on the battlefield. Follow the bloodlines of three foundation sires of the American Thoroughbred through generations of rollicking races and larger-than-life grandees wagering kingly stakes, sometimes on horses not yet born. How did the horse nicknamed Damn His Eyes get protection money from other horse owners? What did it mean to tap the claret to break a neck-and-neck tie? Why was Confederate cavalry so much better than Union—was it the riders, or was it the mounts? All these and many more stories of horsemanship on and off the track fill the pages of Virginia Horse Racing: Triumphs of the Turf.
Brooklyn's Sportsmen's Row
9781609492731
Regular price $21.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
In an era when horse racing reigned supreme and Brooklyn was at its very center, a remarkable collection of turf legends came to reside along one small stretch of northern Eighth Avenue in the exclusive neighborhood of Park Slope. Here, along Sportsmen's Row, the lives of the sportsmen and those of their neighbors—men of prominence and distinction in theater, law, industry and politics—came together in surprising and unexpected ways. Though the public saw a block dominated by the celebrities of the age, behind the closed doors of Sportsmen's Row a more subtle narrative played itself out: of infidelity, gambling, excess and—fame aside—a world strictly ordered and preordained by social class.
