No Thoroughbred race in the state of Kentucky holds a more hallowed place in the national and international consciousness than the Kentucky Derby. Its fame is richly deserved, yet there are other equally important and historic races whose significance deserves a larger share of the spotlight—none more so than the Derby's sister race, the Kentucky Oaks. Inaugurated on May 19, 1875—just two days after the first Kentucky Derby—and run annually at Churchill Downs since then, the Kentucky Oaks is America's most prestigious race for three-year-old fillies and the second-oldest continuously run horse race in North America. Always cherished by horsemen as a test for the future mothers of the Thoroughbred, the Oaks has in recent years become a major charity and fashion gala in addition to its significance as a sporting event. Yet, although multiple books have been published about the Kentucky Derby, popular and academic historians alike have largely overlooked the Oaks.In The Kentucky Oaks: 150 Years of Running for the Lilies, author Avalyn Hunter sets out to recover the history of one of the most watched and highly attended events in Thoroughbred racing. Beginning with Meriweather Lewis Clark Jr.'s creation of a race designed to parallel England's historic Oaks Stakes, Hunter traces the evolution of the Kentucky Oaks through the stories of the men, women, and fillies that have made the Kentucky Oaks a symbol for women's growing participation in the sport at all levels.

Horse shows used to draw crowds by the thousands to state fairs and venues like Madison Square Garden. And in the 1980s, no performance horse filled more arena seats than the American Saddlebred Sky Watch. He pushed the saddle seat industry to a peak that hasn't been seen since. An athlete through and through, the stallion dominated the sport with the same power and intensity as a Kentucky Derby winner. With unmatched talent, his career was one for the history books, earning four World Grand Championships and twelve World titles overall. Years after he finished competing, videos of Sky Watch's legacy in the ring captured the heart of author and lifelong horsewoman Emma Hudelson. Her fascination with the unstoppable stallion sent her on a journey to discover how a horse becomes a legend, convinced that if she can capture the magic behind the greatest show horse of all time, maybe she can understand her own obsession with Saddlebreds. Sky Watch: Chasing an American Saddlebred Story is not only the tale of a remarkable horse, but of the American Saddlebred breed and the way these horses carried one rider back to herself. Tracking the path of Sky Watch's success, Hudelson's book is a deeply personal homage to one of the sport's greatest show horses and the indelible impression he left on the breed and in the hearts of those who loved him.

On the morning of May 18, 1924, households across America opened their newspapers to the headline: "Derby Winner Property of Indian Woman." The woman in question was Rosa Magnet Hoots, a member of the Oklahoma Osage Nation. The horse, draped in the iconic red roses signifying his victory in the fiftieth running of the Kentucky Derby, was Black Gold. In a sport defined by its exclusivity, the pair's unlikely appearance in the winner's circle set off a firestorm of speculation that would uncover an origin story stranger than fiction. Named for the oil that had been discovered in large quantities in Oklahoma at the time of his birth, Black Gold was born in 1921 to a mare named Useeit. At the start of her hard-knocking racing career, Useeit had been purchased by Al Hoots, for whom she won thirty-two of a staggering 122 races. What the mare lacked in regality, she made up for in gumption, a trait Hoots believed could propel her progeny to the hallowed ground of Churchill Downs. Hoots himself would never see Black Gold, dying unexpectedly in 1917. But the legend that came to define the horse would begin with him. Languishing in his deathbed, Hoots claimed to have a prophetic dream that a colt born to Useeit would win the Kentucky Derby. He extracted a promise from his wife, Rosa, to breed the mare to the stallion Black Toney. The decision, which came to fruition three years after Hoots's death, would set in motion a story that would forever change Thoroughbred racing. In Dream Derby: The Myth and Legend of Black Gold, author Avalyn Hunter explores the personalities and histories that surrounded Black Gold. Told against the backdrop of a make-or-break moment for American horse racing and politics at large and framed by the racial violence that rocked Tulsa in the 1920s, Black Gold's victory at the Golden Jubilee stands at the intersection of sport and history. Hunter's work looks behind every stall and tack room door and celebrates the hard work that goes into a great horse and its rivals.

In 2021, horse racing's most recognizable face - Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert - had five horses that failed postrace drug tests, including that year's Kentucky Derby winner, Medina Spirit. While the incident was a major scandal in the Thoroughbred racing world, it was only the latest in a long string of drug-related infractions among high-caliber athletes. Stories about systemic rule-breaking and "doping culture" - both human and equine -have put world-class athletes and their trainers under intense scrutiny. Each newly discovered instance of abuse forces fans to question the participants' integrity, and in the case of horse racing, their humanity. In Unnatural Ability: The History of Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Thoroughbred Racing, Milton C. Toby addresses the historical and contemporary context of the Thoroughbred industry's most pressing issue. While early attempts at boosting racehorses' performance were admittedly crude, widespread legal access to narcotics and stimulants has changed the landscape of horse racing, along with athletic governing bodies' ability to regulate it. With the sport at a critical turning point in terms of doping restrictions and sports betting, Toby delivers a comprehensive account of the practice of using performance-enhancing drugs to influence the outcome of Thoroughbred races since the late nineteenth century. Paying special attention to Thoroughbred racing's purse structure and its reliance on wagering to supplement a horse's winnings, Toby discusses how horse doping poses a unique challenge for gambling sports and what the industry and its players must do to survive the pressure to get ahead.

Calumet, Claiborne, King Ranch - these iconic names are among the owners and breeders revered by Thoroughbred industry professionals and racing fans around the world. As campaigners of many of the 20th century's top racehorses, their prestige has been confirmed by decades of competition in the Triple Crown, the most esteemed series in American Thoroughbred racing. Even with these substantial legacies, their success is measured against the benchmark set by one of racing's earliest dynasties, the historic Belair Stud. The story of this legendary operation began with William Woodward's childhood memories of grand days at the racetrack, inspiring dreams of breeding a champion or two of his own. During a year working for the American Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Woodward frequented English racetracks, rekindling that childhood dream of breeding and owning champion Thoroughbreds. Woodward turned those dreams into reality, building Belair Stud on his family's Maryland estate, launching what would become the preeminent Thoroughbred breeding and racing empire in America and chasing racing's biggest prizes in both the United States and England.The defining moment for Belair came when Woodward bred the imported stallion Sir Gallahad III to his mare Marguerite. Their colt, Gallant Fox, became only the second horse in history to win the Preakness Stakes, the Kentucky Derby, and the Belmont Stakes in the same year. In 1935, the farm cemented the Triple Crown as the gold standard for three-year-olds when Gallant Fox's son, Omaha, duplicated his sire's trio of victories, a sweep that sealed the farm's legacy and carved its name in the annals of racing history. In The Foxes of Belair: Gallant Fox, Omaha, and the Quest for the Triple Crown, Jennifer Kelly examines the racing legacies of Gallant Fox and Omaha and how William Woodward's service to racing during the 20th century forever changed the landscape of the American Thoroughbred industry.

For a few months in 1982, Landaluce was a national celebrity. In her second start, just one week after claiming her maiden, the two-year-old filly won the Hollywood Lassie Stakes by 21 lengths – a margin of victory that remains the largest ever in any race by a two-year-old at Hollywood Park. Landaluce was poised to become the next American super-horse. But those dreams ended when the two-year-old died in her stall at Santa Anita four months later, the victim of a swift and mysterious illness. Today, with the 'I Love Luce' bumper stickers long-gone, the filly has been largely forgotten. In Landaluce: Forever a Champion, Mary Perdue tells the story of a filly whose short but meteoric racing career could have changed racing history forever. In doing so, Perdue also explores the lives and careers of the breeders, owners and trainer, as well as her famous sire, Seattle Slew. From breeder Leslie Combs, who grew Spendthrift farm into a 4,000 acre powerhouse while standing over 40 of the most prized stallions in the country, to trainer D. Wayne Lukas whose stable of racehorses have been winning races for nearly forty years, Landaluce’s brief stint at the top of the sport provides a window into racing history. More than a mere recitation of Landaluce's accomplishments or a piece of investigative journalism probing the mystery of her death, Perdue explores how one filly captured the imagination of racing fans across the country and set the stage for another filly turned super-horse, Zenyatta, in the decades to come. "Mary Perdue takes readers on a riveting journey not just through Landaluce's two years on earth, but across decades of horse racing history, from the Great Depression to the 1980s, from Kentucky to California, from breeding shed to euthanasia ...Perdue's work centers on one horse, but taps racing's every vein — essential reading for fans of the sport." — Tim Layden, writer-at-large at NBC Sports

From the 1500s up until the dawn of World War I, horses played an imperative role in modern warfare, contributing their share to the rise and fall of nations. The enduring quote from Shakespeare's Richard III (1593), "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!" speaks to the abiding image of cavalry embedded in the cultural memory of the West. Riding to Arms: A History of Horsemanship and Mounted Warfare is Charles Caramello's thorough examination of the evolution of horsemanship and cavalry over the centuries. He follows how the debate between 'art and utility' in horsemanship caused a shift from the formal - equitation and manège dressage – to the practical – namely mounted warfare. He also addresses the advent of mechanized warfare that led to the end of horse cavalry. In addition to practical history, Caramello engages with selected primary and secondary texts on horsemanship, from early works like Thomas Blundeville's The Arte of Ryding and Breakinge Greate Horses (1660) to Louis A. DiMarco's War Horse: A History of the Military Horse and Rider (2008), discussing the ways these works shaped horsemanship and calvary practices both in in their own time and throughout history. Melding together history and historiography, Riding to Arms: A History of Horsemanship and Mounted Warfare is a captivating work celebrating one of man's most constant companions in both war and peace.

On October 20, 1923, at Belmont Park in New York, Kentucky Derby champion Zev toed the starting line alongside Epsom Derby winner Papyrus, the top colt from England, to compete for a $100,000 purse. Years of Progressive reform efforts had nearly eliminated horseracing in the United States only a decade earlier. But for weeks leading up to the match race that would be officially dubbed the "International," American journalists provided unprecedented exposure for the sport. The widespread buzz surrounding the race helped lay groundwork for the sport's national proliferation in the years that followed and reaffirmed New York's status as the epicenter of American racing a decade after the sport's return from a two-year shutdown there. Framing the match race between two prominent countries also raised the stakes and put Americans in the position of embracing a new nation, one that would become a global superpower following World War I. In Racing for America, author James C. Nicholson argues that the Zev-Papyrus match served as an important starting point for a progression of international events, including the Empire City Gold Cup, the Washington DC International Stakes, and the Arlington Million, that eventually culminated in the creation of the Breeders Cup World Championships - the annual apex of American racing. Nicholson discusses how syndicated sports columnists shared news, analysis, gossip, and profiles of the equine contestants and the people associated with them, including Zev's owner, oil tycoon Harry F. Sinclair, curmudgeonly trainer Sam Hildreth, and budding celebrity jockey Earl Sande. The American press also played up the rags-to-riches angle in stories about Papyrus's team, creating interest in, and sympathy for, the English team. Those tales of upward social mobility also homed in on American mythological space, muddying the waters as to which horse better reflected what Americans collectively wanted to see in themselves. An American Triumph narrates the rise of an international racing circuit and community, the imperiled status of American racing, the rise of big-time celebrity culture surrounding sports, the glamor and corruption of American politics and resurgent big business, and the popularization of eugenics. Though the International Race was one of the biggest sporting events of the era, no one associated with Zev or the "Race of the Century" would earn a lasting place in American popular memory among other athletic heroes in the golden age of sports, including Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Bill Tilden, and Walter Hagen. Racing for America remembers the blockbuster event, arguing not only that the match brought American horseracing to a place of cultural prominence that it had not achieved in decades, but that the "International," illustrates Americans' hunger for tangible evidence of their nation's strength in the aftermath of the First World War, as well as the central role of politics, money, and ballyhoo in the growth of commercialized sports in Jazz Age America.

An Irish immigrant, a collection agent for crime bosses, a professional boxer, and a prodigious gambler, John Morrissey was - if nothing else - an unlikely candidate to become one of the most important figures in the history of Thoroughbred racing. As a young man, he worked as a political heavy in New York before going to San Francisco in search of fortune at the height of the Gold Rush. After returning to the east coast, he was hired by Tammany Hall and was soon locked in a deadly rivalry with William Poole, better known as "Bill the Butcher. " As time went on, Morrissey parlayed his youthful exploits into a remarkably successful career as a businessman and politician. After establishing a gambling house in Saratoga Springs, the hard-nosed entrepreneur organized the first Thoroughbred race meet at what would become Saratoga Race Course in 1863. Morrissey went on to be elected to two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and two terms in the New York State Senate. In The Notorious John Morrissey, James C. Nicholson explores the improbable life of the man who brought Thoroughbred racing back to prominence in the United States. Though few of his contemporaries did more to develop the commercialization of sports in America, Morrissey's colorful background has prevented him from getting the attention he deserves. This entertaining and long-overdue biography finally does justice to his astounding rags-to-riches story while exploring an intriguing chapter in the history of horse racing.

A safety pin was all that kept Spectacular Bid from becoming the eleventh Thoroughbred to take the Triple Crown. This work examines Spectacular Bid from his humble beginnings -- he was born in a mud puddle on a horse farm in Versailles, Kentucky -- to his recognition as one of the greatest American racehorses.On the morning of the 1979 Belmont Stakes, Spectacular Bid stepped on a safety pin in his stall, injuring his foot. He had impressively won the first two races -- the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness -- but finished third in the Belmont, most likely due to his injury, making him one win shy of becoming the sport's third straight Triple Crown champion.But that loss did not prevent him from becoming one of horse racing's greatest competitors. After taking two months to recover, the battleship gray colt would go on to win 26 of 30 races during his career, with two second-place finishes and one third. He was voted the tenth greatest Thoroughbred of the twentieth century according to Blood-Horse magazine, and A Century of Champions places him ninth in the world and third among North American horses -- even ahead of the renowned Man o' War.This horse biography tells the story of the honest and not-so-glamorous colorful characters surrounding the champion -- including Bud Delp, the brash and cocky trainer who was distrustful of the Kentucky establishment, and Ron Franklin, the nineteen-year-old jockey who buckled under the stress and pressure associated with fame -- and how they witnessed firsthand the splendor and triumphs of Spectacular Bid. Including contemporary newspaper accounts of Bid's exploits and interviews with key players in his story, this is an encompassing look into the legacy of one of horse racing's true champions.

He was always destined to be a champion. Royally bred, with English and American classic winners in his pedigree, Sir Barton shone from birth, dubbed the "king of them all." But after a winless two-year-old season and a near-fatal illness, uncertainty clouded the start of Sir Barton's three-year-old season. Then his surprise victory in America's signature race, the Kentucky Derby, started him on the road to history, where he would go on to dominate the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, completing America's first Triple Crown.His wins inspired the ultimate chase for greatness in American horse racing and established an elite group that would grow to include legends like Citation, Secretariat, and American Pharoah. After a series of dynamic wins in 1920, popular opinion tapped Sir Barton as the best challenger for the wonder horse Man o' War, and demanded a match race to settle once and for all which horse was the greatest. That duel would cement the reputation of one horse for all time and diminish the reputation of the other for the next century -- until now.Sir Barton and the Making of the Triple Crown is the first book to focus on Sir Barton, his career, and his historic impact on horse racing. Author Jennifer S. Kelly uses extensive research and historical sources to examine this champion's life and achievements. Kelly charts how Sir Barton broke track records, scored victories over other champions, and sparked the yearly pursuit of Triple Crown glory. This book reveals the legacy of Sir Barton and his seminal contributions to Thoroughbred racing one hundred years after his pioneering achievement.

It was a cold and foggy February night in 1983 when a group of armed thieves crept onto Ballymany Stud, near The Curragh in County Kildare, Ireland, to steal Shergar, one of the Thoroughbred industry's most renowned stallions. Bred and raced by the Aga Khan IV and trained in England by Sir Michael Stoute, Shergar achieved international prominence in 1981 when he won the 202nd Epsom Derby by ten lengths -- the longest winning margin in the race's history. The thieves demanded a hefty ransom for the safe return of one of the most valuable Thoroughbreds in the world, but the ransom was never paid and Shergar's remains have never been found. In Taking Shergar: Thoroughbred Racing's Most Famous Cold Case, Milton C. Toby presents an engaging narrative that is as thrilling as any mystery novel. The book provides new analysis of the body of evidence related to the stallion's disappearance, delves into the conspiracy theories that surround the inconclusive investigation, and presents a profile of the man who might be the last person able to help solve part of the mystery. Toby examines the extensive cast of suspects and their alleged motives, including the Irish Republican Army and their need for new weapons, a French bloodstock agent who died in Central Kentucky, and even the Libyan dictator, Muammar al-Qadhafi. This riveting account of the most notorious unsolved crime in the history of horse racing will captivate serious racing fans and aficionados as well as entertain a new generation of horse racing enthusiasts.