Two Minutes to Glory: The Official History of the Kentucky Derby (Hardcover)

by Pamela K. Brodowsky (Author), Tom Philbin (Author), Inc. Churchill Downs (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Take a front row seat at "the Run for the Roses" with the first comprehensive history of the Kentucky Derby.

From mint juleps to the garland of roses, to weeping men and women in the Winner's Circle, Two Minutes to Glory is the official story of the world's greatest horse race—the Kentucky Derby.

This book is chockablock with facts, figures, and statistics on all 132 years of this incredible race. It also contains a capsuled yet detailed history of the race and of Churchill Downs, focusing on all the larger-than-life personalities from Col. M. Lewis Clark, who founded the Derby in 1875, to Col. Matt Winn, who saved it when it was in the stretch, out of breath, about to break down, and in need of a miracle—and beyond that to the present day.

But perhaps the best parts of this lavishly illustrated book are the stories of the races, from 1875 to 2006. It is not a mere recitation of what happened—though there is that—but the human (and horse) stories behind the races, like that of Conn McCreary, who, astride Count Turf in 1951, looked down the track before the gates opened and knew that he was riding not just to win the Derby, but for his life. Or the 2005 race where a seventy-nine-year-old woman named Alice Chandler burst into tears as she watched her 50-1 shot Giacomo roar down the stretch to win—but also cried because she knew that when just a foal, he had previously beaten an opponent called death. This book looks at all the people and horses who made the Derby what it is over the years: trainer Ben A. Jones with six Derby winners; Eddie "Banana Nose" Arcaro and Secretariat, who broke the two-minute barrier and ran the fastest Derby in history; the great owners, the grooms—and all the rest. It is history, yes, but history with heart and soul.

As horsemen say, have a good ride.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Pamela K. Brodowsky grew up on a horse ranch and has more than 30 years of experience with race horses, often showing Thoroughbreds in competitions. She is also the founder of International Literary Arts, and is a popular speaker at many writers' conferences. She lives in Moscow, Pennsylvania, with her husband and two children.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Harper (March 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061236551
• ISBN-13: 978-0061236556
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #174,756 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars If this is the 'official' Derby history, I'll eat my racing goggles!, July 25, 2008

By	E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Pamela K. Brodowsky, author of "Poker with the Girls: How to Deal the Perfect Poker Party" and Tom Philbin, author of "How to Hire a Home Improvement Contractor without Getting Chiseled" have banded together to write "Two Minutes to Glory" which purports to be `The Official History of the Kentucky Derby,' in cooperation with Churchill Downs, Inc.

The reason I say `purports to be' is that this book is filled with mistakes. I finally started marking them with green sticky notes about three-quarters of the way through, and by the time I was finished, "Two Minutes to Glory" bristled like a pea-green porcupine.

Just to name a few:

* Ruffian was never elected `Horse of the Year' (even though she should have been). Nor did she die on the track. I still remember listening to the radio late into the night after her match race with Foolish Pleasure to see if she survived her surgery.

* Seattle Slew's jockey was named Jean Cruguet not `Jan Cruguet.'

* When Spectacular Bid went to post in the 1979 Derby, he had not won all ten of his previous races. He was unplaced in the Tyro (08/02/78) and second in the Dover (08/20/78).

* Arthur Hancock III owns Stone Farm, not Stoner Farm

* Mrs. Frances Genter didn't die `before the next Derby' after Unbridled won for her in 1990. She died in November, 1992. Nor did she sit `in a wheelchair near the railing' when trainer Carl Nafzger announced the race for her. She was standing next to him in the grandstand.

* When speaking of Smarty Jones, the authors state that "he is related to Triple Crown winners Funny Cide, Afleet Alex, Fusaichi Pegasus, Foolish Pleasure, Secretariat, Count Fleet, Northern Dancer, and Man `o War..." Evidently there have been 17 Triple Crown winners, not just 11.

The writing style is breezy, although sometimes my attention was caught by the weird English rather than the story. Why did the authors keep calling Mrs. Penny Chenery `the lady with the iron stomach'? What is a `ganglia of horses'?

"Two Minutes to Glory" was fun to read but Churchill Downs, Inc. should have edited its text before letting the authors call it "The Official History of the Kentucky Derby."

Jim Bolus's "Run for the Roses" is a more accurate history of America's greatest Thoroughbred race, although it was published back in 1974. Another good book on the subject is "The Most Glorious Crown" by Marvin Drager, which tells the stories of America's 11 (not 17!) Triple Crown winners (be sure to get the version with the DVD "Win, Place, Show").

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good writers are out of work, and this gets published, July 11, 2007

By	Jil McIntosh (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'll give this two stars for the concrete information it presents, with racing charts, horse statistics and photographs of every winner, even in the early days. But this is one of the most poorly-written books I have ever read; there are times when it seems more like a grade school English assignment than a published reference book.

Sentence structure is frequently awkward, confusing, or hard to follow; comments that the authors seem to find cute are ridiculously infantile (do they really need to describe a poor field as running the "Palookaville Memorial"?); black stablehands are Stepinfetchit cartoon characters; and well-known racing facts are disregarded, replaced with incorrect assumptions.

The individual race recaps are sometimes neat and concise, but more often than not, they ramble into silliness (there's a comment that famous horse thief Pancho Villa, visiting the Derby, never finds out where the winner retired two years later, as if we expected he'd track him down), or miss key information that readers would be more likely to find of interest. Why not mention also-rans that later gained fame, or a horse's effect on the sport, for example? Go to 1930, and you'd never know Gallant Fox won the Triple Crown; go to 1964, and there's no mention of Northern Dancer's breeding legacy. And if you start a drinking game for every time you read the phrases "as it were" or "as they say", you'll be drunk long before you get to Swaps and Nashua - and that famous rivalry isn't even mentioned.

This could have been a triumph of historical data, brought to life with a deft hand; instead, it reads as if two people, with almost no knowledge of the rich history of horse racing, sat down with racing charts and newspaper articles, and tried to make a story of them. Beautifully bound and illustrated, this volume is ultimately a horrible disappointment.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book about a great race!, May 11, 2007

By	Robert McClellan "Bobbymac" (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you love the ponies, and if you get caught up in the all day pagentry of the Derby, then this book is a must have. It's history, traditions, human/equine stories and really just a labor of love on the part of the authors for one of the greatest horse races ever. It's a great read, and if you have been watching the Derby for years it will bring back some memories of the people and the horses.