Secretariat: Thoroughbred Legends [Hardcover]

Timothy T Capps (Author)

Book Description

Series: Thoroughbred Legends | Publication Date: March 25, 2003

This book honors the great racehorse who ran with such breathtaking speed, beauty, and power.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Secretariat is arguably "the greatest all-time American thoroughbred," and turf editor Capps's devotion makes him the voice to call the race. His is probably not, on the other hand, the voice to bring the "Big Red colt's" legend alive for casual readers. Capps's thralldom to Secretariat started two generations back in Meadow Stable's bloodlines, with Secretariat's sire, Bold Ruler and his sire, Nasrullah. Secretariat is always physically present, but the successive trainers and stable managers and jockeys in this legend are only racing diary entries. Capps (Spectacular Bid, also in this series of "Thoroughbred Legends") re-creates some of Secretariat's best races (including a record-breaking under-two minute Derby run). He lays on the kind of statistical detail, stable gossip and racetrack argot that fans love, borrowing text excerpts from every major racing journal, and a corny horseman's poems. His best moment of exposition comes after the 1973 Triple Crown Belmont run: "They were cheering the most incredible two-and-half minutes in American racing history.... Secretariat was no longer a rarity among thoroughbreds. He was singular." The casual monotone of most of Capps's account stems from not solving the "replay problem" inherent in any sports drama. Despite Capps's digressions into thoroughbred culture, including the origins of the Triple Crown, he does offer a detailed history on Secretariat-including 16 handsome pages of photographs.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Capps has been involved in nearly every aspect of the Thoroughbred industry. He has served as a editor of The Thoroughbred Record; as an executive with Matchmaker, a company that sold stallion seasons and shares; and as a vice president at Pimlico and Laural Park in Maryland. He now heads the Maryland Horse Breeders Association and also is editor and publisher of MidAtlatic Thoroughbred.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 222 pages
• Publisher: Eclipse Press; 1 edition (March 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581500912
• ISBN-13: 978-1581500912
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,781,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Effort That Fits Well With the Legends Format, February 24, 2003

By 

K. Palmer (Illinois) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Secretariat: Thoroughbred Legends (Hardcover)

Tim Capps has written several of the Thoroughbred Legends books and my thoughts on his previous efforts (Spectacular Bid and Affirmed/Alydar) were that he really didn't make any effort in writing them. It just seemed like he went through magazine and newspaper articles and came up with a 175 page summary (which was well-written, but seemed empty). When I saw that he was to write the Legends bio of my equine hero, Secretariat, I was apprehensive at the prospect, especially since two outstanding books (by Raymond Woolf and Bill Nack) had already been written about Big Red.

But I have to say that Capps did a great job with the limitations of the Legends format. He states right up front that he was apprehensive of doing the project because of the aforementioned books which had been published about Secretariat. But he states that Secretariat was his favorite and he wanted to do him justice. He has. Obviously there is not the detail that is contained in Nack's book or the beautiful photography of Woolf's book, but Capps gives a clear story of each of Secreatiat's races, plus some of the behind the scenes dealings related to his syndication.

I didn't learn anything new with Capps' book since I have read everything I could about Secretariat, but this would be a great book for a young horse racing fan who wants to learn about this great horse with the big heart.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Off to the Races, January 11, 2009

By 

A. Anderson "Book Person" (Chico, Califiornia) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Secretariat: Racing's Greatest Triple Crown Winner (Thoroughbred Legends (Unnumbered)) (Paperback)

I am a huge fan of Secretariat and bought this little book as much to add to my shelf as anything. It is a quick read whose strength is in clearly describing the races in clear, casual prose. The author admits his prejudice in favor of Big Red and anyone who touches him, and as I too love the horse, I am sympathetic. The Making of a Champion (William Nack) is the 'definitive' Secretariat biography. The You Tube videos of Secretariat's races plus the picture book "Secretariat" by Raymond Wollfe together with the books demonstrate the power, athleticism, astonishing beauty and the race intelligence of this horse that this little book is not up to conveying. I sometimes think that Secretariat would have won his races without a jockey, which is unfair and unkind to Ron Turcotte, but the animal wanted to win and had the package to do it--by 31 lengths at the legendary Belmont. If you are a fan, pick up the book. If you are colelcting the Triple Crown winnders, pick up the book. If you want to get to know Secretariat try the other sources first.Secretariat: The Making of a Champion; Secretariat, Updated Edition

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars solid prose that could use a little poetry, July 12, 2008

By 

W. C. Bonner "young fogey" (Atlanta) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Secretariat: Racing's Greatest Triple Crown Winner (Thoroughbred Legends (Unnumbered)) (Paperback)

In the wake of the Big Brown Bomb fiasco, one would hope for a little more in the way of mementos of the life of the equine Prometheus, yet the pickings are still slim - you don't even see Secretariat's SportsCentury show on ESPN Classic anymore.

Besides this one, the only other mass-market book about Secretariat with any availability is the William Nack biography which I review on its Amazon page. I prefer this to the Nack book because of its pithier style - a good example is the discussion of Secretariat's lineage where Capps does a much better job of referencing it to overall horse racing history.
There are still too few photographs, but the ones included are much more pertinent than those in Nack's.

Until we get a DVD from ESPN, this is my first choice for an introduction to the greatest four-legged athlete.