The Bottom Line
Pros
- Settles and renews debate on the best and worst of the sport
- Useful history lesson for the last 30 years of American racing
- Well-written and very entertaining to read, recommended to all racing fans
Cons
- There is an error in Chapter 1 about the training of J.O. Tobin that the author has acknowledged.
- Other than this, we found no fault with this work. A masterpiece by one of racing's best writers.
Description
- A common problem in sports debates is comparisons between eras: Gretzky vs Howe, McGwire vs Ruth, Secretariat vs Man o'War
- Davidowitz solves this problem by only including races he saw personally or live on television, a period spanning 3 decades
- A wide range of topics are covered: jockeys, trainers, owners, champions, upsets, consistency, versatility, and many more
- He also covers less "statistical" topics, such as popularity, rivalries, innovations, scandals, and race announcers
- Davidowitz includes comments about personal observations as well as statistical data to back up his rankings
Guide Review - The Best and Worst of Thoroughbred Racing
Because he only includes the period of time he has been involved in the game, a span of over 30 years, this book makes for a useful history lesson and a "trip down memory lane" for modern racing fans, as the book does include the last three Triple Crown winners as well as the entire history of the Breeders' Cup World Championships. Davidowitz will bring back memories of horses the reader probably saw in person or on TV but had forgotten about until now.Racing fans will thoroughly enjoy his lists, so they can compare their personal opinions and observations to those of Davidowitz. His ranking list of the top 20 racecallers in North America should be a source of debate for years to come, as, unlike racehorses, racecallers tend to stay in the game for decades rather than just the 2-4 years of a typical Thoroughbred racing career, and in today's age of full-blown simulcasting as well as TVG and HRTV, fans can easily tune in to almost any track in the country and compare for themselves. Readers will often find the "worst" lists more entertaining than the "best" lists, and Davidowitz is very fair indeed, not picking on easy, obvious targets such as sterile horses for "duds at stud". The lists are interspersed with entertaining anecdotes and probing essays covering racing's brilliant and controversial characters, from Native Dancer to Barbaro, Eddie Arcaro to Jerry Bailey, and Charlie Whittingham to D. Wayne Lukas.
Davidowitz makes use of this soapbox to not only celebrate the human and equine heroes that make this sport great, but to point out the rascals and reprobates in an industry that too often fails to address and resolve its most troubling issues, explaining what needs to be done to preserve the sport of Thoroughbred racing in an ever-changing competitive environment.
