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The overall balance between good and bad, happy and sad, is quite fair. However, I found this book to be extremely interesting and very well written. As someone originally from Boston, having spent many afternoons at Suffolk Downs, I'm a little bit biased. There were passages that made me laugh out loud, others that were quite sad. While many books like this are written as advertisements, Mr. Thornton has no problem in exposing some of the less desirable sides of the industry. There is an interesting section that exposes the chaos and corruptness that is Massachusetts state government. I would certainly recommend this book, especially to casual horse racing fans, industry insiders maybe not so much.
Thornton also gives us intimate information about the functions of the other race tracks along the United States eastern coast. Good description of characters and events. Author reveals that he really does have a total knowledge of the life and death of the Suffolk Downs race track in East Boston. This is a long read, sometimes dragged out a bit, but it does give the reader an insight into how a race track operates and the people associated with that world. Norma in California
A mesmerizing account of the year 2000, if you lived through the good and bad years at Suffolk Downs. The uniqueness of the book is that he pulls no punches and mentions names and incidents from fixing races to track owners who really just wanted the property to develop. Well worth reading at least once, I read it twice.
Excellent read for anyone who has ever been interested in the goin's on of the pari-mutual world.I'm a greyhound racer, but all the problems of the horse industry apply to the dogs. You could substitute the name "Suffolk Downs" in the book with any greyhound track in the country and everything would apply.I couldn't put it down.
It makes him look like a total jerk. However, the narrative often drags. One big issue: The book was published several years AFTER most of the events in it take place. Presumably, he's put down, but we get NO details.The bit that made my jaw drop in disbelief came when the author wrote that he overheard two jockeys planning to illegally "fix" a race. What kind of person does that and then basically brags about it in a book that he gets nationally published. For some reason, the author decides to refer to horses as "steeds" pretty frequently. Word choice is also distracting at points.
This might not seem annoying, until you read the book. You may find yourself wincing every time you read the phrase "star steed" or the word "ouchy" (a word often used when "sore" or "painful" would get across the same point and sound far less juvenile). The topic is interesting and at points the author manages to write in an engaging style. The few plots that grow throughout the book are not resolved to any real satisfaction, either. What happened to the injured horse. Rather than tell the stewards (he assumed they wouldn't believe him), he RAN TO THE BETTING WINDOW to try to take financial advantage of the information he had heard. More of that; less of the rambling blather that went nowhere. The depictions of actual races and behind-the-scenes issues were insightful, as well.
Too often. I was very pleased when his bet didn't pan out. It loses any sense of immediacy. Much of it feels far too much like old news. I don't recall if he said how much money he bet, but I hope it was a lot.Good parts of the book: I enjoyed the descriptions of the MassCap and the efforts to get top horses to enter. With a serious editing and chopping out of the dead weight, this book could have been great.
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