Review
It's a knockout of a racing story, with many photos by the author and a new foreword by Ron Turcotte. (
In and Around Horse Country )
a delight—either to read or just to look at the pictures. (
The New Yorker )
If you have taste for a beautiful book, this one's for you. (Joe Hirsch
Daily Racing Form )
A first-rate gift book for anyone who loves horses, anyone who loves racing and for sports fans generally. (Roger Caras )
Absolutely beautiful. (Dick Francis )
Woolfe's easy-reading style adds much to his inside story of this exciting chestnut thoroughbred. (
Publishers Weekly )
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
From the Author
Secretariat, by Raymond Woolfe, Jr., the 25th Triple Crown Anniversary Edition is a celebration of the memory of America's most beloved racing champion. The first authorized biography and chronology of the life and career of the legendary American Thoroughbred champion,
Secretariat was originally published in 1974 immediately following his retirement from racing to stud at Claiborne Farm. The book was an instant success, favorably reviewed by NY Times, CBS TV, NBC TV, Sports Illustrated, Daily Racing Form, Time, Philadelphia Inquirer, Blood-Horse, and many other major media. Selling over 60,000 copies in its first 8 months and named to B. Dalton's prestigious "perennial list"(a tribute in the trade to a book considered to be a timeless best seller),
Secretariat took on numbers which had been the privilege of few other books about horses. Today, book sellers specializing in out of print editions are reaping prices of from $350 upwards to $600 for first edition copies of the book. Copies signed by the author along with signatures of some or all of
Secretariat's entourage are valued at over $2,000 a copy. The magic of the great horse is incurable.
In 1989, Mr. Woolfe published a limited, leather bound collectors edition, now also out of print, which sold over 1000 copies at $250 each. The edition offered an expanded text covering Secretariat's breeding career, racing records of his offspring, and a recording of Lucien Laurin's complete training diary for the horse. A groundswell of demand for a popularly priced edition of the book led Mr. Woolfe to re-publish the book for this 25th anniversary year of Secretariat's Triple Crown victory. Bound in a heavy weight, full color paperback cover, the book measures in at the same coffee table size of 10 1/2" x 10 1/4" as its predecessor and contains the full expanded text of 212 pages, including 32 pages of full color (over 55 color illustrations and over 150 black & white). At a suggested retail price of only $30, Secretariat is a prize worth having. The magic is still all there for everyone who ever loved horses, and, for those to whom horses are a lesser consideration, well, howzabout just a great story about a hero of his time.
