The Bottom Line
Strongly recommended to all fans. Those whose job is to paint the picture of racing's exciting and colorful history play a very important role in attracting fans and Scatoni gives them their due.
Pros
- The best turf writing examples to date thus far
- Hovdey's Sunday Silence/Easy Goer article
- Hirsch's tribute to John Henry
Cons
- Every piece was excellent. No cons could be found
Description
- The pieces, non-fictional accounts of actual events, range from book excerpts to newspaper columns.
- Each has a different focus; their collective efforts make the book more than the sum of its parts.
- Upon reading these great works, one quickly sees that racing has changed little over the years.
- Trainers and handicappers still complain about biased surfaces, and touts still ply their trade.
- This anthology truly represents the best of turf writing to this day.
Guide Review - Book Review: "Finished Lines"
With few exceptions, no sport can express as much emotion through a journalist's writing than thoroughbred racing. In this anthology, Scatoni demonstrates this fact by collecting some of the best examples of turf writing from the last century. The pieces are sorted alphabetically by author, giving variety as the book is read through and not showing favoritism for one piece over another. Legends such as Andrew Beyer, Dick Francis, Jim Bolus, Damon Runyon, and the timeless Joe Hirsch are represented here. Scatoni said that it is "more a celebration of Thoroughbred racing than a straightforward literary anthology. It captures the essence and spirit of the sport as seen through the eyes of some of the greatest writers of the 20th century."
