Customer Reviews

The Race for the Triple Crown

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Race for the Triple Crown" is not in the usual run of amiable puff jobs about Thoroughbreds and their owners. For one thing, the author is an award-winning sportswriter for the "New York Times." For another, he is a dedicated horse-player---Damon Runyon; bettin' on da gee-gees; bookies; "The Daily Racing Form"---that sort of scene. Finally and perhaps most importantly, he owned and raced a Quarter Horse named Oh Desperado, who turned out to be a whiz at dressage.

Joe Drape begins his story in June, 1999 when the big, beautiful Charismatic, a former claiming horse fractured his foreleg in the Belmont, just seconds away from becoming the first Thoroughbred in twenty-one years to win the Triple Crown. The book ends with Tiznow's victory in the 2000 Breeder's Cup Classic and the death of his eighty-three-year-old owner, Cecilia Straub-Rubens, three days later.

In between, Thoroughbred owners "spent $510,834,975 on 8,779 yearlings at auctions in the United States in hopes that one of them was the right horse for the 2002 Triple Crown."

The author writes primarily of the owners and trainers, by turns foolish, determined, and hopeful, and some of whom were real S.O.B.s. One of the prominent players is the trainer D. Wayne Lucas, who won the first two races in the Triple Crown in 1999, and then won the third leg in 2000. He is also one of the aforementioned S.O.B.s---one might even call him the Patton of Thoroughbred training. I finished this book with a tremendous admiration (although not liking) for Lucas, especially for winning the 2000 Belmont with a mediocre horse and sheer tactical brilliance. The author is still kicking himself for not betting on Lucas's horse in that race. It would have been his fifth winner on a Pick-Six ticket.

"The Race for the Triple Crown" is rich in the detail of what it takes to purchase a Thoroughbred at auction (lots of money, lots of testosterone, and lots of research). It portrays the agony and ecstasy of owning, training, and riding a potential Triple Crown horse. Here is the true story of the relationship between D. Wayne Lucas and Charismatic's jockey, Chris Antley. Here's what it feels like to try and outbid a Maktoum at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Here are the reasons why you shouldn't plan a celebratory dinner in advance of a Thoroughbred race. Here is Bob Baffert, "intoning, `Houston, we got a problem' into the microphone at the 1996 Preakness when his horse Cavonnier was on his way to a fourth-place finish."

This is an absolutely riveting story for readers who are already somewhat familiar with Thoroughbred racing. I loved it. However, I disagree with the cover blurb that says it is "a delight for both aficionado and novice." If you're looking for a starter book on Thoroughbred racing, try "Secretariat: The Making of a Champion" by William Nack, or "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand. "The Race for the Triple Crown" has so much insider detail that a newcomer to racing might become totally confused if he or she doesn't already recognize some of the players, e.g. Pat Day, More Than Ready, Sheik Maktoum bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Jenine Sahadi, and The Deputy (for starters).

Readers of the New York Times have long been treated to the considerable talents and authoritative voice of award-winning journalist Joe Drape. Now, in The Race for the Triple Crown, Drape showcases his skills for a broader audience. In crisp, elegant prose, Drape captures his subjects and their sport as they wind through a wildly eventful season of racing, taking readers behind the scenes and telling the myriad interweaving stories that make the sport of kings endlessly fascinating. The Race for the Triple Crown is an absorbing read, and should not be missed.

About two thirds of way through this book I just gave up and skimmed the rest. This book is filled with page after page of names - names of horses, owners, jockeys, trainers, and others. There are so many names that it's impossible to keep track of them all (one of the major deficiencies of the book is the lack of an index; with this many people and horses, plus the way that Drape jumps around from subject to subject in an almost random manner at times, an index is an absolute necessity). What's really lacking from the book is any kind of excitement. Drape has managed to take something that I thought was inherently exciting and make it as dry as dirt. I think it was about page 180 (out of 261) before he even gave a play-by-play of an actual horse race!

I had just come from reading Laura Hillenbrand's "Seabiscuit" so I was very much looking forward to this book, especially gven Hillenbrand's own glowing review right here. The Race for the Triple Crown thus stands as a huge disappointment for me. Drape is, after all, a newspaper sportswriter, and this book is written just like it's one long newspaper column. It's all one note - informational - with no attempt to generate any kind of feeling behind its words. If what you're interested in is a detailed description of the people and horses involved in the 1999-2000 thoroughbred season then this book is what you want. But if you want something that's a good *story* and that gives you the excitement of horse racing, you won't find it here.

Racing fans have heard it many times before...There have been only eleven winners of the Triple Crown. Sir Barton was the first in 1919 and Affirmed, the last, in 1978. Eddie Arcaro won two Triple Crowns, one on Whirlaway in 1941 and then on Citation in 1948. There was a drought of twenty-five years between Citation's sweep and the coming of Secretariat in 73'. Secretariat is moving like a tremendous machine... So that's an overview of racing's classics. Now for something meatier...Thank you Joe Drape! Finally someone has gone beyond the legendary telling of this story and put it under a microscope. Drape's portrait of the Triple Crown is like a Robert Altman film with people and horses, owners, trainers, jockeys, everyone weaving in and out in search of victory, or at least a ticket to Louisville. The book goes happily beyond the soundbytes of trainers like Neil Drysdale and Todd Pletcher and delivers us a story that is intense, hopeful, sometimes funny, sometimes disappointing, but always interesting.

Joe Drape takes the reader to the top of the horse racing field with clarity and tight prose worthy of a master storyteller.

Insightful behind the scenes coverage makes you often forget that is a true story about the fight to win the run for the roses and the glory that is the Triple Crown.

Drape covers all that and more in this gripping read. A true delight.

Drape took on the task that all of us outside the world of racing should be grateful, that is, giving us an inside look at the horses and connections that take a 2 year old colt from Derby wannabe to Triple Crown contender. What I found disappointing was the lack of detail in the races themselves. Drape sufficiently builds up the Derby and details the race, but the other prep races, Preakness and Belmont are slighted. I guess I am used to William Nack's detailed descriptions of Secretariat's races. You won't learn anything new about Lukas or Baffert here that you haven't already read. You will at least learn a little about Todd Pletcher, Neil Drysdale and Jenine Sahadi.

Forget Seabiscuit. This is the racing book of 2001. Drape has taken an otherwise foregttable year in racing, and crafted a rivetting, memorable, behind the scenes look at the personalities, egos, hopes and dreams that live on the backstretch. Drape offers the well earned insights of a man who not only has pushed a bit of money thru the windows at tracks across the world, but has even owned a hard-luck pony of his own. I loved this book!

In my opinion, this book did not live up to its fantastic reviews. I am a huge fan of Fusaichi Pegasus (...)And also, the other Big Red-Man o' War-was better.), and enjoyed reading the chapters on FuPeg. However, as a previous reviewer posted, this book was like a giant list of names. Name after name after name appeared, it could confuse even an expert at horse racing, which I do not claim to be. Overall, an average book, though it depicts the connections of each horse quite well.

This is a great book. It gives you tons of info on lots of like, trainers, horses, and races. It talks about the trainers Bob Baffert and D. Wayne Lukas(and more), horses like Fusaichi Pegasus, Charismatic, Captain Steve, and More Than Ready, just to name a few. In this book it talks about the authors experiences in owning a Quarter Horse named Oh Desperado, and the ups and downs of being a owner. This is one of my favorite books.

The Race For The Triple Crown, Joe Drape; Atlantic Monthly Press (2001)


Disgusted with the overall quality of racing's published books (last word used advisedly), RTC ended up in the basement with some other racing fish in a clear plastic sealed bin normally used for dirty laundry & the storage of dumb but amusing sitcom tapes.

March 2011: Retrieved it (after the delivery of more basement furniture & the physical rearrangement of the old & the new) & decided to place it back on the shelf ("Good God, has it really been ten years since this was published?!").

Despite not having an index ("Write you own, a*****e" I think the message is), there's still enough quality historic racing journalism in it to justify holding on to RTC - which offers an explanation of why Bob Baffert's TN Pluto 180* Venus failed to stop him on the racetrack.

(He was quietly getting divorced. Two years later, I find out about it. In racing circles, it should be noted, a marital divorce is when each spouse succeeds in placing the other back into the claiming ranks.)

The story of the long-shot Cash Run beating Chilukki (Breeders' Cup 1999) is also detailed, as are my own margin notes about my ill-advised $10 exacta boxes at Saratoga in 2000 - which preceded the fantastic inspiration that Cash Run "can't do worse than 2nd" (in a four-horse field, he ran 4th. There is also some nice personal racing memorabilia etc. taped into the book, including the amazing evidence that at Belmont Park in 2001, I uncharacteristically managed not to screw up cashing a 1/3/6/7 triple).

Post Note: I write reviews before reading those written by others. So my vehement objection to the book lacking an index existed prior to noticing that "Eric S." & I both think it is insane that the publisher saved about $193.69 by eliminating the cost of creating an index.

Great books get five stars; good ones, four. RTC is certainly well-written, but the lack of an index knocks the rating down to three stars.