Great Horse Racing Mysteries: True Tales from the Track

by John McEvoy, Lenny Shulman

Overview

Great Horse Racing Mysteries digs beneath the surface of some of the sport's most intriguing cases, including the death by poisoning of the great Australian champion Phar Lap; the shooting of William Woodward by his wife Ann, owners of the great horse Nashua; the disqualification of 1960 Derby winner Dancer's Image (was he drugged?); the theft and disappearance in 1983 of Shergar, Europe's best-known racehorse and stallion; and the scandalous financial collapse of Calumet Farm after the death by euthanasia of Alydar, one of the world's most successful sires.John McEvoy researched several unsolved mysteries of the racing world— murder...suicide...arson...fraud—and recounts some of horse racing's strangest, most fascinating tales.

In this updated edition, veteran turf writer Lenny Shulman adds to the intrigue by exploring the mysterious death of the troubled jockey Chris Antley, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness aboard Charismatic, and Big Brown's stunning collapse in the Belmont after cruising to winsin the first two legs of the Triple Crown.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493070138
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	06/01/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	296
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

John McEvoy (1936-2019) was the former editor of the Daily Racing Form and author of the Jack Doyle horse racing mystery series as well as a profile of the legendary racehorse Round Table.

Lenny Shulman is an Emmy Award-winning writer who has worked extensively in TV and film as well as for magazines and newspapers across the country. For 20 years he has served as features editor for BloodHorse magazine, the Thoroughbred industry’s foremost trade publication. He is the author of Justify: 111 Days to Triple Crown Glory, Ride of Their Lives: The Triumphs and Turmoil of Today's Top Jockeys, and Head to Head: Conversations with a Generation of Horse Racing Legends.

Table of Contents

Introduction 7

Phar Lap's Last Race 11

Strange Undercurrents 40

Red McDaniel's Sudden Leap 60

Woodward's Smoking Gun 72

Scandalous Image 98

Hot at Hawthorne 127

Shergar-Into Thin Air 148

What Joost Knew 169

Calamity at Calumet 186

Ron Hansen-The Joker 207

Holy Bull-Undone in the Derby 227

Bluegrass Conspiracies? 241

Chris Antley's Troubled Finish 257

Big Brown's Impossible Loss 272

References 287

Index 288

Acknowledgments 292

About The Author 293

Editorial Reviews

Did the IRA steal Shergar, Europe's most famous racehorse? Is he dead, or living a life of quiet obscurity in the Irish countryside? Did jockey Ron Hansen accused but never found guilty of race fixing jump off the San Mateo bridge, or was he pushed to his death? In Great Horse Racing Mysteries: True Tales from the Track, horse racing reporter John McEvoy explores 12 of the sport's weirder tales, including the poisoning death of legendary Australian racehorse Phar Lap. The book features some shady characters, among them William McCandless, who stole the valuable broodmare Fanfreluche, and more than two decades later, in 1998, was accused of "sponging" horses (inserting sponges in their nostrils to stop their breathing). Racing enthusiasts should love this book, but even those who can barely tell the Kentucky Derby from a hat should find this book an engaging look at a bizarre international subculture. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Titillating and informative. Well-researched and well written. What more could a reader want?
—author of Wild Ride: The Rise and Tragic Fall of Calumet Farm, Inc., America's Premier Racing Dynasty

Ann Hagedorn

[An] excellent new book. The cases are well-presented, well-researched, and well-chosen, and we can recommend this book enthusiastically as a good read.

Daily Racing Form

"Racing enthusiasts should love this book, but even those who can't tell the Kentucky Derby from a hat should find this book an engaging look at a bizarre international subculture." —Publishers Weekly

"[An] excellent new book. The cases are well-presented, well-researched, and well-chosen, and we can recommend this book enthusiastically as a good read." —Daily Racing Form

From the Publisher