Forego (Thoroughbred Legends) [Hardcover]

Bill Heller (Author)

Book Description

Series: Thoroughbred Legends | Publication Date: May 6, 2001

One of the most popular racehorses of the 1970s, Forego had legions of fans that thrilled to his grit and determination to win.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bill Heller covers the Saratoga meet every summer and also writes a daily Saratoga Journal on his website. As the handicapper for the Schenectady Daily, he finished as the leading public handicapper for the 2000 Saratoga meet. This is his seventeenth book. He profiled Thoroughbred legends Go for Wand, Personal Ensign, and Forego; wrote Graveyard of Champions; and most recently authored Go For the Green, a handicapping book about turf racing. Heller was born in Liberty, New York, and graduated from the University of Albany.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Eclipse Press (May 6, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581500491
• ISBN-13: 978-1581500493
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #623,598 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Big Joe versus a saddle full of lead, November 11, 2001

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E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Forego (Thoroughbred Legends) (Hardcover)

"My horse will never see that big red rump again," promised Forego's trainer (slightly paraphrased) after Secretariat's record-breaking 1973 Kentucky Derby. Following his fourth-place finish in that Derby, the huge bay gelding whose nickname was `Big Joe' would finish out of the money only four more times in forty-nine starts. He would go on to earn `Horse of the Year' titles in 1974, 1975, and 1976.

But `Big Joe' never did race against `Big Red' again, partly because of his trainer's promise, but also because Forego didn't really come into his best form until he was a four-year-old---the year that Secretariat retired to stud.

"Forego" is the sixth volume in the excellent `Thoroughbred Legends' series published by the Eclipse Press. This book celebrates one of modern racing's greatest weight-carriers---a hard-trying, seventeen-hand gelding who towered over his lightly weighted opposition, in spite of chronic ankle problems. `Big Joe' raced over six seasons and earned scores of loyal fans who almost always made him the favorite, no matter how much lead he had to carry under his saddle. His special nemesis, the New York racing secretary Tommy Trotter once assigned him to carry twenty-seven pounds more than his lightly regarded opposition.

Trotter's handicapping skills helped to bring about one of racing's greatest moments: "...Forego's desperate rally on the far outside to catch Honest Pleasure at the wire in the 1976 Marlboro Cup while carrying 137 pounds, eighteen more than the horse he had to run down, on a sloppy surface that Forego usually could not handle."

Like two other great Thoroughbred geldings of the latter part of the Twentieth century, Kelso and John Henry, Forego ran until he just plumb wore out, always giving his fans his formidable best. No matter that his trainer had to spend three hours a day hosing down Big Joe's sore legs. No matter that he had lost his previous race, or had to carry twelve to twenty-seven more pounds than his four-legged opponents, Forego's fans made the towering bay their betting favorite.

Hall of Fame jockey Bill Shoemaker who won the Belmont five times, the Kentucky Derby four times, and the Preakness twice on Thoroughbreds other than Forego, paid special tribute to the great heavyweight champion: "This has to be the best horse I've ever ridden."