The Home Run Horse: Inside America's Billion-Dollar Racehorse Industry and the High-Stakes Dreams that Fuel It [Hardcover]

Glenye Cain (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 2004

The home run horse, the runner that makes your fortune and changes your life, can come from anywhere. This book will explore the quest for the superior Thoroughbred, who takes up the search for a life-changing horse and why they do it with limited success.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cain reaches the winner's circle with this thorough, enthralling study of the Thoroughbred horse-racing industry, which, over the past century, has gone from gentleman's hobby to billion-dollar business. At annual auctions like the Fasig-Tipton in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., would-be buyers dressed in Town & Country–style silk suits place big bets in their quest for the "home-run horse," a Triple Crown contender with millions of dollars in earning potential, or "the Thoroughbred sport's equivalent of hitting the lottery." Cain, a Daily Racing Form editor, explains how one such mogul—wealthy, bespectacled, 53-year-old Satish Sanan—hit pay dirt when his $2.15-million yearling, aptly named Vindication, won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and skyrocketed in value. Other beneficiaries include breeders like Taylor Made Farm, a family-run operation near Lexington, Ky., that holds up to 650 Thoroughbreds at a time and has generated $830 million in revenue over its 25-year history. The high stakes put pressure squarely on the trainers, who are expected to produce the next Unbridled's Song or Seattle Slew; as one puts it, "You didn't want the horse to lose when you knew the owner had $30,000 or $40,000 bet on him." Cain's captivating book brims with history, drama and characters; readers will be sucked in long before crossing the finish line.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

The success of Smarty Jones over two thirds of the most recent Triple Crown campaign reminded the public that it is possible for a group of pals to parlay a whimsical purchase into a multi-million dollar payday. "The Home Run Horse," subtitled "Inside America's Billion-Dollar Racehorse Industry and the High-Stakes Dreams That Fuel It," clarifies the record by demonstrating that getting a horse to the track - any track - is a longshot, and that the odds against winning The Kentucky Derby, even though some horse does it every year, are nearly incalculable.

As a writer for the Daily Racing Form, Glenye Cain has learned the business of racing, and she writes about it with enthusiasm and wit. Some of the stars of her story are horses, whether they are racing or procreating, but anybody who knows anything about the track understands that the people at work and play there can be fascinating, too, and Cain harkens back several centuries to demonstrate that fact. Her tales of Dennis O'Kelly, who helped run a brothel in London in the late 1700's and owned Eclipse, a home run horse if there ever was one, are worth the price of the book. She is too discreet to speculate on the extent to which O'Kelly, "former gigolo and debtor turned aristocrat poseur," is representative of the latter day upper echelons of the sport of kings.

There are those who object to racing and, by extension, to books that make the activity seem romantic and exciting, because they consider the business cruel to animals. No doubt they have a case, at least when cruel and stupid owners and trainers are involved, though at the level of the sport Glenye Cain is exploring, the amount of money invested in the animals militates against both stupidity and cruelty. In fact, Cain turns up one story of the thoroughbred Tapit, who sups on eggs and Guinness. Not, as Ned Martin used to say, too shabby. -- Bill Littlefield, onlyagame.org, March 2007

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Daily Racing Form (September 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972640126
• ISBN-13: 978-0972640121
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #278,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #87 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Individual Sports > Horses > Racing

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A vivid account of racing and the bloodstock business, May 15, 2006

By 

Nicholas Clee (London, England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Home Run Horse: Inside America's Billion-Dollar Racehorse Industry and the High-Stakes Dreams that Fuel It (Hardcover)

Anyone with an interest in horseracing will enjoy Glenye Cain's behind-the-scenes look at the thoroughbred industry; and newcomers to the sport will find plenty to entertain them in these pages too. Cain has an eye for the details that make vivid this self-contained and expensive world: the quirks of the owners, breeders, trainers and horses. She conveys the atmosphere of the sales ring as wealthy owners do battle, of a stud farm late at night as a mare gives birth, of Churchill Downs racecourse as trainers prepare their expensive and fragile charges for the Kentucky Derby. In love with the industry, she does not neglect its darker side. After reading The Home Run Horse, you'll watch horseracing with new insight and enthusiasm.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent survey of horse racing in america, March 20, 2007

By 

Alex Brown - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Home Run Horse: Inside America's Billion-Dollar Racehorse Industry and the High-Stakes Dreams that Fuel It (Hardcover)

The author, Glenye Cain, has been covering Barbaro for The Daily Racing Form. She sent me her book after I had had a few conversations with her about Barbaro, a horse she adopted (indirectly) off the racetrack that had at one time been trained by Graham Motion, and horse related issues such as horse-slaughter. As someone closely involved in racing I enjoyed the book as it shed light on aspects of our industry in which I was less familiar (breeding / auctions etc). I do think, however, the book best serves those first learning about the thoroughbred industry and wanting to get a solid base of knowledge from which to then build. It is excellent.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Home Run Horse Hits It!, January 4, 2007

By 

Janet E. Griffin "nicehorsie" (NorCal) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Home Run Horse: Inside America's Billion-Dollar Racehorse Industry and the High-Stakes Dreams that Fuel It (Hardcover)

A most interesting and arresting view of the Thoroughbred Horse Industry. Equally facinating to novice and experienced horsemen(women)alike. Horse racing at it's highest and lowest.