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5 comments about Thoroughbred Racing's Greatest Day: The Breeders' Cup 20th Anniversary Celebration.

1. Thoroughbred racing is a story more complex than simply which horse finished first. In this engaging "behind the scenes" look, the author lifts the veil to reveal an array of characters and events that have shaped the Breeders' Cup. Obviously well-researched, this book provides in-depth portraits of the Breeders' "players". Written in an amiable voice that takes the reader deep into the world of professional horse racing, one gets a clear sense of the monies, time and emotions invested by jockeys and owners alike. Avoiding pondering, pedantic rhetoric, this book is written by and for horse racing aficionados. Each chapter profiles winners, losers and horse whisperers and makes for entertaining reading. If you or someone you know is interested in horse racing, I recommend this book be included on your holiday gift list.



2. This an excellent book for anyone interested in horseracing and especially the Breeders' Cup.

   I was lucky enough to spend some time with Lefko in the Press Box at Woodbine in the early 1990s and also while he was writing the first edition of this book in New York in 1995.

   He is without a doubt the hardest working reporter I have ever met and it certainly shows in these tales of the great (and not so great) steeds and the people that love them, train them, ride them, live with them and and bet on them - legally and otherwise (Chapter 21 - The Fix Six).

   Lefko probably did over 1000 interviews while researching this labor of love and he has woven these interviews together with previously uncovered gems of information to create a superb read.

   Angel Cordeo, Franki Dettori, Pat Day, Cigar, Lukas, Arazi, the Paulson's, little known tidbits of horsey history, comments from real racing fans and more make this book one of a kind and a must for any racing fan.




3. Artfully written, factually accurate accounting of racing's most colorful sporting pageant. The in-depth research moves the reader willingly along through a series of mini-stories (chapters) that cumulatively provide a compelling overview of "Thoroughbred Racing's Greatest Day."



4. Perry Lefko, Thoroughbred Racing's Greatest Day (Taylor, 2003)
   
   First, be advised: this is not a new book. If you've read Lefko's The Greatest Show on Turf, this is a revised and updated edition to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the first running of the Breeders' Cup. I hadn't read the book the first time around, so I can't compare the two, but take note if you have.
   
   They changed the title, but didn't really make it any clearer: Thoroughbred Racing's Greatest Day is about the Breeders' Cup. Non-fans are more likely to think it has something o do with the Kentucky Derby. Hardcore fans will think any of a hundred days (the Dubai World Cup? Grand National? Melbourne Cup, a national holiday in Australia?), the Breeders' Cup being one of them. The last group are right. Various and sundry stories about specific Breeders' Cup days, specific Breeders' Cup horses or families of horses, owners, trainers, Lefko pretty much covers the gamut of stories here.
   
   It will do the reader well to remember that Perry Lefko is a journalist. He is also unaware that a book-length piece requires a different writing style than a newspaper article. It is best to treat this book as a series of very long newspaper articles; it'll help you get through it quite well. If that were the book's only problem, I'd probably give it an above-average rating and move on. However, the book has a number of errors that it's hard to believe any horse fan would make (most notably, the sporadic misspelling of the names of champion horses, like 1998 Breeders' Cup Distaff winner Escena). While I tried not to let it affect my judgment, Lefko, like most of the rest of the media, is obsessed with the Most Overhyped Event in American History(TM), and in any passage of the book dealing with the 2001 or 2002 Breeders' Cup, there will be far more mention of 9/11 than could possibly be warranted.
   
   Recommended only for already-established racing fans. The rest of you would do far better to start off with something better-written (unfortunately, I'm not familiar with anything focusing specifically on the Breeders' Cup in book form that's better-written); William Murray's The Wrong Horse is a lovely introduction to the world of Thoroughbred racing, as is Bill Barich's classic combination of novel and memoir Laughing in the Hills. ** ½



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