Customer Reviews

Bold Ruler (Thoroughbred Legends)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
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My understanding is that "Bold Ruler" is the 24th and final volume in Eclipse Press' Thoroughbred Legends series, which was begun in the late 90s as a tribute to some of the great racing superstars. And this book, about this 1950s racing superstar and dominant sire (Bold Ruler was the sire of the great Secretariat) is a nice conclusion to the series. The book is written by Ed Bowen, who wrote several of the Legends books. I'm not crazy about Bowen's style, which is to spend a lot of pages discussing the ancestory of the connections to the horse more than that of the horse itself. But his detailed descriptions of Bold Ruler's many races and his very successful stud career are very well done that this is probably his best book in the series.

If this is the end of the series, I believe that it was a very good series. The majority of the top 25 race horses of all time were chronicled with the notable exceptions of Count Fleet (1943 Triple Crown winner), Tom Fool (early 1950s superstar), Buckpasser (late 1960s superhorse), Cigar (probably because there already is a nice book about him on the market) and Seabiscuit (ditto). But the selection as pretty good and almost all the books were enjoyable. And the 24 books look very nice on my bookcase. Well done, Eclipse Press!

The horse Bold Ruler was a star of the 1950s: one of the best of a generation of racehorses who participated in the memorable 1957 Triple Crown season. His story is recounted in a vivid memoir which follows the sport of horse racing overall, revealing Bold Ruler's championship runs and riders. With black and white photos adding excitement, Bold Ruler is a thoroughbred legend account which reads with all the drama of fiction and is a highly recommended pick for any horse racing fan.

I really liked reading Bold Ruler. This horse was amazing with all he has done in his life. I think his Eddie Arcaro is a great rider and Bold Rulers trainer is good at what he does too.