2 comments about Twist the Axe: A Horseplayer's Story.

1. Maj Ragain, Twist the Axe: A Horseplayerýs Story (Bottom Dog Press, 2001)

   Twist the Axe is the best book Iýve read this year, a conglomeration of Ragainýs writings on racehorses and the culture surrounding them culled from many years of work. This book collects previously published and unpublished work, poems, stories, journals, and the odd drawing or two, pairing them with newspaper clippings, result charts, family trees, and just about anything else one could think of. Ragain can lay claim to being one of the ten or twenty best poets working in America today; his distinctive poetic style, the storytelling diction Williams tried and failed to achieve time after time, meshes with the juxtaposed images of hopeless, cheap horses and the memories they raise. On one level, of course, itýs all about the horses; on another level, itýs about the rest of life.

   Ragain never makes the reader dig too far; there are layers beneath, of course, for those who want to pursue them, but the average John Q. will certainly be able to understand the connections in ýMorning Line;ý

   Jim Henson, father beard of muppets,
   died of bacterial pneumonia, May 17, 1990.
   The next day at Thistledown, fifth race,
   a mare named Big Time Bird went off,
   unacknowledged, at odds of 134 to 1.
   Big Time Bird ran the race of her life,
   drenched in and driven by grief,
   the hot lasix of tears.
   She finished second, a half length short,
   beaten by a horse named Woman in Love.
   You will never figure out this one.

   This is one of those books that, if anyone outside the world of poetry knew of its existence, might have the power to draw thousands back into the fold. It is understandable, perfectly written, accessible not only to the poetry junkie but to the average reader. For most people, itýs a pleasurable new world; for the chosen few who have been lucky enough to have been reading Ragainýs books for longer, it will be another rest stop on the way to Paradise. They are all too few (this is Ragainýs fifth book, with the first published in 1979), and should be eagerly devoured, once found. *****




2. there are no poets today because there are no ears to hear them; what passes for it is written by pretenders such as these, men to whom the muse has never spoken, illiterate, poorly trained, intellectually and emotionally stunted. do yourself a favor: tattoo your body and buy this book. one will poison your body, the other your mind. i cannot imagine a more appropriate fate for you.

4 comments about Bred to Run: The Making of a Thoroughbred.

1. This is a book about the behind the scences happenings at Claiborne Farms in Paris, Kentucky. It is an informative look at the breeding side of Claiborne Farm and tells about the history and some about the past stallions that lived there. It talks about the routine that goes on there and also talks of some of the farms policies for the stallions, mares and employees. There is also a section in the middle which has black and white pictures of famous stallions like Secretariat, Man O' War, Princequillo, Nasrullah, Nearco, Northern Dancer, Nijinsky II, Bold Ruler, Buckpasser, Native Dancer, Mr. Prospector, Alydar, and more. The pictures are half page and include a brief description of the stallions sons and daughters. I rate this book with four stars. I don't know exactly why it wouldn't get five stars, but I don't feel that five would be correct.



2. This is an excellent book for anyone considering the breeding business. Highly recommended.



3. Helm does a great job on providing the history of many breeds besides the Thoroughbred.
   
   His inside information was of great benefit to us before we visited the Claiborne Farms in Paris, Kentucky (Just East of Lexington). If you want to know the history of Claiborne Farms then this is the book for you.
   
   I very much liked the personal touch he put on his subjects.
   
   It's out of print now but worth finding one used.
   
   Good luck,
   William Barnard
   Michigan



4. Mike Helm, Bred to Run: The Making of a Thoroughbred (Henry Holt, 1993)
   
   Wander into the horse racing section of the Gambler's Book Store in Las Vegas and you'll find a good number of tomes dedicated to the horse racing industry. A lot of them focus on the picking of winners. Some focus on the economics of the game. And there are the odd human interest book or two. But other than your basic how-to manuals, there are very few that exist on what happens between the parents leaving the track and the babies getting there. This is one of them.
   
   Bred to Run: The Making of a Thoroughbred is Mike Helm's chronicle of time he spent at Claiborne Farm, one of the largest and most famous stud farms in America, not to mention one of the oldest still in existence. Helm's book has an almost pastoral feel to it, though nothing is ever varnished; people who have been working on horse farms for most of their lives, they've seen the lows as well as the highs. Helm covers the industry piece by piece, shedding light not only on the actual business of breeding horses, but maintenance of the farm, getting the babies ready to race, and the all-important financial side of things.
   
   Definitely worth a look if you're interested in horse racing. ***

1 comments about The New Treasury of Great Racing Stories.

1. Dick Francis puts you in the midst of the action. Close your eyes and you are there, smelling the sweat, feeling the adrenalin and the rush of the wind as you hurtle over the fences onto the next adventure. Reading Dick Francis ensures the reader always comes away with a new found knowledge, whether it be photography, veterinary science, painting,skiing, .the list is endless. Once read, you will be chomping at the bit in anticipation of his next masterpiece.

No comments about Newmarket & Arabia.

No comments about American Racing Manual 1995.

1 comments about Workouts and Maidens.

1. Frankly, any book with as many typographical errors as this hapless little volume contains would result in some editor's head being lopped off. This book evidently had no quality control exercised over it. But that isn't the main problem. The book is an information lightweight. The author's fundamental message is something to the effect that workouts can be informative as to a maiden's condition. I found the few-and-far-between nuggets of information rather generic and hardly earth-shattering. A newcomer to the sport, only about three years' worth of handicapping experience, I kept the book as a curiosity, but I could hardly recommend it to anyone except as perhaps a good laugh. Well, there are one or two interesting tidbits in it and after all it is a contribution to the meagre handicapping effluvia. Yet Mr. Reo has done better (i.e., Finding Hot Horses). If you find it on sale somewhere, it's worth a couple bucks. Otherwise, spend the money on a beer. The post-guzzle belch will satisfy you a lot more than this book will, alas.

No comments about El Caballo Deportivo.

No comments about Hunting Reminiscences (History of Hunting Series - Drag Hunting & Terriers) (History of Hunting Series).

No comments about The Champion Hurdle: From Blaris to Istabraq.

2 comments about Florida Thoroughbred.

1. Charlene R. Johnson, Florida Thoroughbred (University Press of Florida, 1993)

   In a relatively short span of time, less than twenty years, central Florida's Marion County went from being nothing but swampland to being second only to Lexington, Kentucky, in the production of quality Thoroughbreds. The meteoric rise of Ocala and its dominance in the Thoroughbred world is chronicled by Charlene Johnson in the wonderful book Florida Thoroughbred, a must-read for American fans of Thoroughbred racing.

   While the book itself gives a comprehensive look at the state of things in Florida from the pre-depression attempts to open a Thoroughbred track in Miami (which later became Hialeah, one of the great showplaces of Thoroughbred racing, now unfortunately defunct) to Unbridled's 1990 Breeders' Cup Classic win, the book focuses on Ocala, and the two figures who started it on the road to where it is today. One of them was Thoroughbred breeder Charles Rose, whose Rosemere Farm was the first major Thoroughbred outpost in Ocala. The other was Needles, the first Florida-bred to win the Kentucky Derby. Both Rose and Needles are colorful figures who are great fun to read about, and their exploits run through the book like the storied limestone veins of Ocala upon which Rose made his initial fortune.

   There's really not much else to be said here; Johnson has given us a fine and eminently readable history of the Thoroughbred breeding industry in Florida. With any luck, University Press of Florida will try to capitalize on the sudden popularity of horseracing, thanks to Seabiscuit and Funny Cide, and get a paperback edition of this printed and distributed through a major house. Even if they don't, it's worth tracking down a copy of the original pressing. This is a fine piece of work. ****




2. Good god, this book is pure drudgery to read.
   I was looking for an engaging description of how FL evolved from being the no man's land of horse breeding to a significant factor.
   
   This book was pedantic and dull. Example (assume horses X & Y are both FL-bred):
   "Horse X won $600 dollars that year. Horse Y won $25. The grand total of FL horse earnings that year was $625."
   Durrr...thanks for the rudimentary math lesson. Basically 1/3 of the sentences in this book could be discarded without loss of information. I never made it beyond chapter 4.
   
   The tome does contain many excellent historical pictures.