Customer Reviews

Triple Crown Winner: The Earl Sande Saga, Tragedy to Triumph (Horse Racing Biography)

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Triple Crown Winner: The Earl Sande Saga is a beautifully written book recounting the exciting rise to fame and glory years of the man who was perhaps America's greatest jockey. From
Sande's youth on an Idaho farm to his rides into history on some of racing's greatest horses, this book gallops comfortably along and will keep you turning the pages. It is informative and fun to read, containing both narrative and a rich dialogue which helps bring Sande and his contemporaries alive. It includes rare photos, fascinating statistics and a glossary of racing terms. I loved reading about Sande's heart-pounding races, yet I was equally touched by the quiet passages telling of the devotion that Sande and his wife had for each other, through good and bad. Even if the reader is not a horse racing fan, the human element of this story will captivate them. Triple Crown Winner: The Earl Sande Saga will carry you away with courage, hope and tears. It is a story for everyone.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the Earle Sande Saga! I had no idea there was a jockey as good as he was who had roots in South Dakota, my home state. The meticulous research and about the facts in Sande's life and the accompanying photos make the book a true page-turner. I didn't want it to end. As always, Richard Maturi tells a very good tale of human drama and history which keeps the reader enthralled. I recommned it to anyone who loves horses, who likes to see the underdog win, who enjoys stories about racing, or who just enjoys a well-documented biography of an interesting character. The Earle Sande Saga has something for everyone to enjoy.

A very well done, beautifully bound book that chronicles both the tragic and triumphant life of jockey, Earl Sande, culminating in his reaching the absolute pinnacle of his sport. Often, it has been the 4-legged characters that captured audiences' hearts in books and movies of the past; now finally, an incredible tribute to one of horse-racings' all-time greats, Earl Sande, will take your breath away. Humor, tragedy and triumph are all captured in this rich and detailed biography. The dozens and dozens of period photographs make this exciting ride all the more real while truly immersing one into the Golden Era of Sports. Let Maturi take you on a ride from the grandstands to the stables to the mud-flung tracks in early May as the story of one of the greatest jockeys ever, unfolds. Certainly deserving of a movie script, this epic account of one of racings' greatest contributors is definitely a "Triple Crown Winner" in my book! Highly recommended for every and anyone!!

"The book chronicles the ups and downs of Sande's racing years, as well as his personal battles, and provides a descriptive account of racing during the early part of the 20th century. The main characters are brought to life with clarity. If you liked the movie "Seabiscuit," you will love this book about Sande."

Reviewner: "Bob" MN USA
Triple Crown Winner: The Earl Sande Saga is another well written book by Rick Maturi. Mr. Maturi put himself into the story as a fact finder which was a unique approach. I had never heard of Earl Sande before I read the book, but I learned all about him through Mr. Maturi's excellent mixture of actual facts and his own analysis of what was happening in Earl's life off the track. Mr. Maturi established Earl to be a "real gentleman" in the face of horse owners who were not. This is a great abook-excellent photos-it has everything.

I found this book very disappointing and so unworthy of such an interesting figure as Earl Sande. The author seemed to have good intentions in researching Sande's life, but fell far short of the mark and wrote the book anyway. The result was contrived dialogue and expanded race results from the Daily Racing Form. I purchased the book from the author at Emerald Downs during Derby weekend. I liked him and I wanted to like the book, but it was just too laughable.

Author Richard J. Maturi hustled around the country like a jockey's agent when Triple Crown Winner was published. I saw him being interviewed in the outdoor paddock of Thistledown Race Track in Cleveland, OH, and a few days later he conducted an interesting phone interview on a Thoroughbred talk-radio show based in Cleveland.

Earl Sande can be considered the "lost athlete" in the Golden Era of Sports; a renowned jockey as dominant in his popular sport as Bill Tilden in tennis, Babe Ruth in baseball and Jack Dempsey in boxing. But his name has somehow gotten dropped when mentioning that period when athletes became larger-than-life celebrities to the public.

Like too many athletes then and now, Sande retires on top of his game, but must come out of retirement for financial reasons. And unlike so many stars who fail miserably when age rots away ability, Sande adds an exclamation point to his brilliant career when the odds were stacked against him.

Maturi starts his journey in unearthing the Sande story through a very unique circumstance. He then leads the reader through the dead-ends and great triumphs in putting the fragmented pieces of Sande's story together.

The text falters when Maturi relies too much on the staid statistical reporting of Sande's racing achievements. It simply stalls the creativity.

Also, to push the story along, Maturi has quotes from Sande that are nothing more than wooden in nature. His "comments" upon his wife's death, for example, would lead one to believe that this personal tragedy really did not phase him one bit. If Sande was so stilted, then Calvin Coolidge was actually one wild and crazy guy!

The Thouroghbred industry oftentimes does a poor job in relating the rich history to what is happening on the track today. Maturi does a great job out of the gate in researching Sande, but comes up short in striding to the winner's circle due to portions of the text failing in the deep stretch.

Excerpt from 8/25/07 Tulsa World review by Horse Racing Correspondent Richard Linihan, "Many horseracing critics are calling it (Triple Crown Winner: The Earl Sande Saga") one of the best books of its kind ever written."

Triple Crown Winner: The Earl Sande Saga is the biography of a tall, lanky kid who learned to ride in competitive horse races on the "leaky-roof", dirt track, racing circuits, eventually rising to the top ranks of North American jockeys racing on the most prestigious courses in the country. Sande was a distinctive jockey who, in a time when other jockeys routinely resorted to the whip, used the whip sparingly, preferring to coax supreme efforts out of his mounts with a gentle hand while riding them to victory and singing in their ears. Biographer and horse racing enthusiast Richard J. Maturi has done a truly excellent job in presenting the life story of one of horse racing's most memorable jockeys -- Earl Sande.