Customer Reviews

The Kingmaker: How Northern Dancer Founded a Racing Dynasty

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Horses is my business and though I'm naturally attracted to the subject I'm also quick to lose interest if the writing is weak or the facts lacking.

Ms. Hunter is an excellent and detailed researcher as well as a talented writer and I found THE KINGMAKER to be a fluent and entertaining read. Her even handed style gives the reader a sense of unforced discovery and the pages just seem to turn themselves.

I believe that THE KINGMAKER would be a excellent book for anyone with even a flickering interest in the amazing world of the thoroughbred race horse and how this magnificent breed is shaped. Northern Dancer was the living embodiment of every horsemans dream and Ms. Hunter's warm style and confident command of the subject make that dream tangible.

The detailed appendicies will keep both novice and expert entertained following the paths that the daughters and sons of the great Northen Dancer have blazed.

The book is a fine piece of research by Hunter and does a good job of telling the story of Northern Dancer's life and how his connections contributed to the game. While it is a fairly quick read, it's not a page turner on the level with some of the classics such as Nack's "Secretariat" or Schwartz's "Ruffian". The book does do a wonderful job of conveying the importance of Northern Dancer immeasurable contribution to the breed through his numerous offspring. It really is quite a remarkable legacy that the little colt from Canada has left behind.

I have been a racing and breeding enthusiast for 30 years, and Avalyn Hunter's The Kingmaker: How Northern Dancer Founded a Racing Dynasty is the finest work on the subject I have ever read.

Avalyn Hunter walks both the novice fan and hardcore fan through Northern Dancer's early beginnings, his race by race racing career, and his phenominal success as a sire, broodmare sire, and sire of sires. Indexed in Avalyn Hunter's work are the offspring of Northern Dancer, which reads like a Fortune 400 list in a business magazines, and it includes colorful backgrounds of the people behind Northern Dancer, namely breeder E.P. Taylor and trainer Horatio Luro.

Any fan of historical breeding and racing literature will gain from possessing Avalyn Hunter's work. This book will sit on my shelf as a reference tool for many years to come.

While I am still reading the book, I'm about 70% through the book and feel I can form a strong enough opinion at this point. The Kingmaker is an easy read backed by an incredible amount of pedigree research going back to the late 1700s. If you ever find yourself on Thoroughbred Pedigree Query digging through generations of breeding, this book is for you. You're given the back stories behind the horses who created the modern day Throroughbred. You'll learn about their builds, temperaments and how each match was made leading to the breeding shed. You also get a keen sense of which traits have been passed down through each generation. There is so much information to be had, it's worth taking notes and keeping a computer nearby to look at TB Pedigree Query. This isn't a book that embellishes the story, instead, it gives the straight facts and references any discrepancies in the story by providing the different views from the people in Northern Dancer's life.

I'm having trouble getting through the end of the book because it's a lot of information about ND's progeny including their accomplishments in Europe. I'm not entirely interested in racing overseas and am a bit overwhelmed by the information since I'm not familiar with most of the races and their grades (Grade 1=G1, etc.) in Europe. I don't fault the book, and if you're a die-hard racing fan, you'll relish the worldwide perspective. But what remains true is Northern Dancer can be found in most pedigrees today, and many times more than once in a pedigree.

The next book you should add to your reading list is "Stud : Adventures in Breeding". It's about Northern Dancer's prolific grandson, Storm Cat (Storm Bird - Northern Dancer x Terlingua - Secretariat), and his impact on the Thoroughbred breed.

Beautifully and sensitively written history of this most influential thorougbred, probably never another like him. His line still features strongly in both hemispheres. (American readers may be interested to know that our Australian Horse of the Year for 2006 - Makybe Diva - yes a filly! - won our Melbourne Cup 3 consecutive years (the first horse to do so) and amassed over US$10 million dollars, the all-time leading Australasian money-earner. Her grandsire was Danehill (USA), and his grandsire was Northern Dancer.

Great collection of photographs, but would have loved to have seen more of the King at various stages of his career/life. AND there is an index!

A must-have for anyone only vaguely interested in thoroughbred racing.

Avalyn Hunter brings to life the outstanding racing career of Northern Dancer and his legacy through his sons of establishing a royal dynasty in the Thoroughbred industry.

There is enough information packed into the tight 200 pages of writing for those interested in an insider's look at history or for the casual fan wanting to learn about the life of Northern Dancer.

The book is about equally split on Northern Dancer's racing and breeding careers. The opening pages trace ND's bloodline, which may drag for some readers who don't have a background/appreciation in such research. But it is the past matings - along with a little luck - that set the foundation for ND to launch the spiralling prices obtained in the auction ring for his progeny.

Especially interesting are the features on the people surrounding ND, including his owner, Canadian industrialist E.P. Taylor, trainer Horatio Luro and the jockeys that were aboard the multiple-stakes winner. And talk about luck, Luro had wanted young ND gelded as a means to bring better results in training and racing.

There are infrequent times where a book on Thoroughbreds can deliver so much to a wide audience. The Kingmaker is a classic read.

This was a birthday gift to my daughter. She was very thrilled with the King Maker. The book is about the champion horse, Northern Dancer. It arrived for her birthday on time, and in good condition. Thank you for making this happen. It is wonderful when you can give a gift that is pleasing to the receipiant.

Great book and fast service. New condition that was just what I needed for gift-giving. Thanks!

The Kingmaker: How Northern Dancer Founded A Racing Dynasty by Avalyn Hunter (a frequent contributor to "The Blood-Horse" magazine and author of "American Classic Pedigrees") is the remarkable story of racing enthusiast E. P. Taylor's determination to provide the world with a thoroughbred racing horse from his own native Canada. Carrying its readers along through an inherently fascinating account of Taylor and his horse, Northern Dancer, as they made their way to the 1964 Kentucky Derby, The Kingmaker includes legendary stories of the men and horses behind Taylor's impressive accomplishments. A superbly written and presented history, The Kingmaker is very strongly recommended for readers with an interest in the dynamic world of professional horse racing in general, and the accomplishments of Northern Dancer in particular.

Good insight into the impact Northern Dancer had on racing in... a lot of detail on lineage ... Enjoyed Stud a pretty good offering for pedigree enthusiasts