Horse Sense: An Inside Look at the Sport of Kings - Hardcover

Sugar, Bert; Richardson, Cornell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471445576 ISBN 13: 9780471445579

Publisher: Wiley, 2003

Synopsis

A behind-the-scenes look at the business and pleasure of horse racing

Horse racing may be known as "the sport of kings," but it's big fun for everyone and even bigger business. A perfect mixture of beauty and excitement, action and refinement, it's a booming business that peaks annually when the Kentucky Derby turns Churchill Downs into the center of the gambling universe. In Horse Sense, legendary sportswriter and commentator Bert Sugar goes behind the scenes to interview owners, breeders, trainers, jockeys, and track operators to uncover the world of horse racing with the humor and wit only he can bring to the subject. Packed with insight and anecdotes, Horse Sense shows us why we love the sport enough to make it a $100 billion industry.

Bert Randolph Sugar is one of the most recognizable personalities in sports, with his trademark fedora and cigar, he is a fixture at race tracks and boxing matches. A former advertising executive at McCann-Erickson and J. Walter Thompson, Sugar left the world of advertising after a brawl with a fellow ad exec landed him in the pages of the NY Times and Advertising Age. Sugar became a sportswriter, and a damn good one at that. Bert was the editor of Ring Magazine and founder of Boxing Illustrated. Bert has been the Kentucky Derby announcer for Fox TV and has attended the races in the triple crown the last 25 years. Bert is a graduate of Harvard and University of Michigan Law School. Bert lives in Chappaqua, NY.

Cornell Richardson is the former chief lending officer at Chemical Bank where he was the primary lending officer to the entertainment and sports industries-including many of those in the horse racing industry. Currently, he is working with Bud Greenspan on a documentary for ESPN entitled, "The Ladies Wore Silks- The History of Women in Thoroughbred Racing." Cornell lives in New York City.

About this title

From the Back Cover

In praise of Horse Sense

"Bert Sugar wears his hat and waves his cigar and looks like some old-time fight manager. But this is far from being true. Bert Sugar is a brilliant man. And pride would not allow him to do a book that doesn’t reflect this much work and care for English: ‘Robinson Crusoe without a boat.’ The reader gets a big break with this one."
–Jimmy Breslin, Pulitzer Prize Winner, author of Sunny Jim: The Life of America’s Most Beloved Horseman–James Fitzsimmons

"Even Damon Runyon would have considered Bert Randolph Sugar to be Runyonesque. Here, he takes the reader beyond the rail or the $2 window and behind the scenes, with the rich cast of characters who make up the Sport of Kings."
–Bob Costas, NBC and HBO Sports

"Bert Sugar’s Horse Sense is a great read, capturing racing’s unique and colorful history with humor, priceless anecdotes, and genuine love and respect for the noble equine competitors who define the game."
–Tim Smith, Commissioner, National Thoroughbred Racing Association

"The roll-call of unforgettable characters from owners to trainers to jockeys to the horses themselves–the whole mystique of this addictive sport is spelled out for you in a book that lives up to its subtitle, An Inside Look . . . Before you hurry off to Belmont, Gulfstream, or Hollywood Park, or to your nearest OTB parlor, you’ve got a winner with your ticket to Horse Sense."
–Budd Schulberg, author, Academy Award Winner, On the Waterfront

"The business of horse racing can be dry stuff, but not with Bert Sugar on the case. He mixed the dollars and cents with the colorful characters and nonsense and came up with a potent sporting cocktail. Horse Sense is a must-read for any fan of the Sport of Kings."
–Jason Levin, author of From the Desert to the Derby

From the Inside Flap

Thought of by many as quaint and old-fashioned, horse racing is in reality a high-tech, $100-billion industry, with more money wagered on Triple Crown races than on the Super Bowl or the NCAA basketball tournament.

Now, legendary sportswriter and commentator Bert Sugar, with his writing stablemate Cornell Richardson, goes behind the scenes to look at the inner workings of the world of horse racing–its beauty and excitement, its action and colorful characters. Packed with rich insight and equally rich anecdotes, Horse Sense offers a top-to-bottom examination of the pastime so many find fascinating and addictive–from the owners who bet massive sums on the promise of future victories to jockeys who risk life and limb to cross the finish line first; from the breeding of thousands of potential winners to the actual crowning of a few champions; and from the two-dollar windows to the millionaires’ winner’s circles.

From its birth in England to its modern status, Sugar and Richardson follow the same trail of money and prestige that has attracted millions of men and women to racing. They reveal the astronomical sums paid for the stallions and mares with a winning ancestry and uncover the role of breeders who make their fortunes after legendary horses run their last race.

A world in which animals worth millions go by ridiculous names and owners soothe damaged egos over mint juleps–there’s nothing quite like horse racing. In Horse Sense, Sugar and Richardson explain why the sport tempts millions to invest their hearts and pocketbooks in four-legged "athletes"–with a wit and wisdom that show why horse racing is not only "the Sport of Kings," but also "the King of Sports."

About this edition

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0471445576
• ISBN 13: 9780471445579
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240