Customer Reviews

The Horse God Built: The Untold Story of Secretariat, the World's Greatest Racehorse

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I just finished "The Horse God Built". I sat down on my couch with it this morning and started it. I couldn't put it down except for a few convenience breaks. I almost forgot to eat!

There have been some wonderful books written about Secretariat, and I've read all of them I could find. Mr.Scanlan goes a step further by including the most important person in Secretariat's life...Eddie (Shorty) Sweat. He did this without overlooking a moment of Secretariat's life and his wonderous accomplishments. Eddie's story only added to the beauty of Big Red's story by Mr.Scanlan and it wouldn't have been complete without it. Eddie would have been so proud.

I'm still shaken from reading this book. I sat on my couch and read until I finished all 335 pages, including the index. Those pages had me totally hypnotized. I smiled, I laughed, and I cried.

Thank you, Lawrence Scanlan for taking me back to Secretariat once again. You took me on a wonderful, exciting journey and I enjoyed the ride so much. I will cherish this book, as I will all my books, photos, prints, and clippings of this magnificient horse. You taught me things I didn't even know about BigRed. I learned things about other great Thoroughbreds along the way. Thank you, thank you!!

Suzanne Whitaker
a Texan and an ardent admirer of the horse God built.

Mr. Scanlan, the winner of numerous magazine writing awards, has written another great magazine article. Unfortunately, Mr. Scanlan has written a book instead that does not support his story line past twenty pages. The thrust of the story is that Eddie Sweat, Secretariat's groom, was a super guy who did a fine job, but got left out of the shuffle of recognition of all those who made Secretariat great. Perhaps all of that is true. It is great that Mr. Sweat is getting some focus now. The book just does not have all that much to say past making the acknowledgement of Mr. Sweat's place in the historic picture.

Some of the principles involved in the story Mr. Scanlan writes (my great privilage to know them) have told me that there are many errors of fact. For what I know first hand, Mr. Scanlan never says anything absolutely wrong, and certainly not with malice, but he is careless and he does fall back on others to suggest interpertations that do not reflect reality.

For example, Scanlan, again not directly, bemoans the preservation of Secretariat's birthplace, Meadow Farm, as the new home of the State Fair of Virginia. This shallow conclusion is made from the car window conversation he had with site scavengers. So much is incorrect with this brief passage that it would take too long to detail, but the main point Scanlan misses is that the Meadow would have been turned into 10 acre "farmettes" had the Fair and Caroline County not worked together to keep the Meadow intact. A "farmette" is hardly the fitting end for Secretariat's birthplace.

Now the Meadow will house an equestrian museum that will honor Secretariat while the site will once again become a center of Virginia equestrian events. One phone call would have put this story right. Somehow, the scavengers were unable to brief Scanlan on these plans.

Two Books that Secretariat fans should read are Raymond Wolfe's "Secretariat" (snappy writing along with many amazing images), and Bill Nack's authoritative, "Secretariat: Making of a Champion." Both are fine works.

If you're expecting "The Untold Story of Secretariat, the World's Greatest Racehorse" or the "Untold Story of the Bond Between Secretariat and his Groom" as proclaimed by the book's dust jacket and editorial reviews, save your money because the book offers neither. Scanlan, who admits he is new to the world of horse racing & Thoroughbreds, reveals his novice status in his inability to find a focus for the book. Although he states repeatedly throughout the book that he's writing a book about Secretariat and Eddie Sweat, he doesn't deliver on that promise. He doesn't tell a "story" about horse or groom as promised in the title. What he could have titled the book is - "People and Places in the Lives of Secretariat and Eddie Sweat, and Seldom Discussed Dark and Unpleasant Truths about the Racing Industry and Life on the Backside, and Other Details I Learned about Thoroughbreds along the Way." What little he actually writes of Secretariat he gleans from Bill Nack's Secretariat: The Making of a Champion and Raymond Woolfe's Secretariat. While he may have written other books about horses, Scanlan doesn't possess the depth of knowledge to write about Thoroughbred racing. Read his description of the athletic challenge faced by racing jockeys on pages 20-21 and then read Laura Hillenbrand's description on pages 70-73 in her book Seabiscuit, and you'll see he's totally out of his element. Mostly, he writes like an old gossip gathering bits and pieces of others' memories and getting nasty digs in about owners and trainers. He's pleased to give readers the second-hand "dirt" he's dug up, even though he reports that Eddie Sweat and Charlie Davis (Secretariat's exercise rider) never wanted to see any of their complaints in print. What a big disappointment this book is. If readers are avid fans of the turf and the careers and lives of great race horses, stick with Nack and Woolfe if you want the story of Secretariat. There's nothing new about him here.

Like other reviewers, I assumed this was a book about Secretariat. Why? Well, the title is "The Horse That God Built." Not "All the often unacknowledged souls who cared for the horse that God built," which would've been more accurate, if too cumbersome. I love horses, have owned, ridden and worked around them since I was young, but this book was hard going. At first, the author states that he's going to also write about Eddie Sweat, Secretariat's beloved groom. Well, that was fine, too. It sounded like an unique angle, and certainly Sweat deserves acknowledgement. I also thought it would be intriguing to read a book that seemed to promise that it would address the class differences in the racehorse world head on. However, I never did figure out what the author's thesis was.

The stories about Secretariat and his crew were certainly interesting. Hero worship of "Big Red" reached such proportions in the seventies, that he appeared on the cover of Time and fans begged for a strand of his mane or even some manure. Still, after awhile, I wanted more than just reminescing that seemed random. I wished the book's structure had shaped itself more in a chronological order of either Secretariat's or Eddie's career. Overall, it read like a magazine story and should have been given more editing in order for it to become a cohesive book.

I had high hopes for this book, but was ultimately disapointed. Like other reviewers, I do not know where the author was trying to go with this. There are a few nice stories about Big Red and his accomplishments, but most of it is about his handlers, etc. That was great for a page or two, but it quickly became tedious and then proceeded to ridiculous. It reminded me of a grad student who has fifteen pages of work, but needs to fill in the gaps with anything that comes to mind to get to the assigned fifty pages. Don't bother with this one.

This is an interesting book, full of interesting observations, quotes, and anecdotes about the racing business, but like many reviewers I have to say the title is very misleading. This is NOT a biography of Secretariat as much as it is the story of Eddie Sweat, Secretariat's groom. If you are looking for a definitive biography of the great horse, keep looking. But if you want to hear a story about a man who got close to this amazing animal like no other but profited only minimally from it, keep reading.

I picked up this book hoping to read interesting tidbits about this great horse. Instead, I had to sift through stories of horses I had never heard of and people that just weren't involved in any way with the horse, his handlers, or the time period that the horse dominated.

I understand the focus on Eddie Sweat that is in this book. Totally get it and I give him all the credit in the world. For those that haven't read the book, Sweat was a very accomplished groom that had a special relationship with Secretariat and kept him healthy and focused during his racing career. That relationship was detailed and I really appreciated that aspect of the book because it sounds like Sweat was a horse man. I didn't mind the fact that the book focuses on Sweat's personal demons. But tangent after tangent just got to be too much.

The greatest season in the history of horse racing - 1973 - covered 30 pages of about 300 total. The races were broken down in to just a few paragraphs. The Triple Crown races were 2-3 pages each. Really disappointing. There has to be a ton of stuff out there that either the author was too lazy or too interested in making other points and didn't include. The one story he did tell was the Jack Nicklaus story that anybody interested in this horse already knew... "The untold story..." give me a break.

There is a good book about Secretariat and his team out there but this clearly was not it.

Lawrence Scanlan approaches the life & times of Secretariat and covers a wealth of angles in an industry that has yet to live up to the legendary accomplishments of this iconic champion.

From the shooting-star fame of Big Red's groom, Eddie Sweat, the final minutes in the life of the champion - who apparently was treated like a pauper and not comforted like a king - to the destruction through neglect of the farm that was Secretariat's home and the plight of the runners who never perform at the highest levels of the sport, Scanlan covers much turf, but does it with style and class.

There are more straight-forward biographies of Secretariat, but none roar down the stretch to bring the legend to life - and uncover the missed potential in "The Sport of Kings" - the way Scanlan's poignant reporting and timely tackling of current issues ultimately accomplishes through several strong surges to the wire, many lengths in front of the pack.

So glad I checked this out from my local library and didn't buy it. I have read nearly 1/3 of this book and it has gone nowhere. I am going to put myself out of my misery and start another book. This is a long essay that was turned into a book. Too much fluff and not a lot of substance.

I love to read good books about horse racing. It appears as if this book will be a focused journey on Secretariat, the horse God build; however, it didn't take me very long to realize that this book was not focused at all. There were a few interesting tidbits...that is why I gave it two stars, but I was in college not long ago and I know how to fill space on a page...so I can spot it when I see it...I am really sorry this story was not told very well.