American Pharoah: The Untold Story of the Triple Crown Winner's Legendary Rise by Joe DrapeMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Because the Kentucky Derby was postponed this year, NBC
decided to rebroadcast the 2015 Kentucky Derby, when American Pharoah
started his Triple Crown run. This reminded me that I had this book
(yes, my TBR pile overflows my nightstand and laps through my
bookshelves) and I decided to pull it out. It proved to be an engaging
enough read, even if it doesn't hold a candle to one of the best horse
racing books ever written, Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit: An American Legend.
But then again, few non-fiction books do. The main problem with this book is its disjointed narrative: the author head-hops excessively, from trainer Bob Baffert to jockey Victor Espinoza to owner Ahmed Zayat to competing jockeys and trainers, all in the length of a page. He sketches his human characters well enough, but he plops those character sketches into odd places that tend to disrupt the narrative a bit. He also doesn't spend nearly enough time on the actual races, which is why we're reading the book in the first place. This is not the best of my pantheon of horse racing stories (Hillenbrand and William Nack, with his brilliant, lyrical biography of Secretariat, are tied for first place there) but it will hold your interest for a few hours.
But then again, few non-fiction books do. The main problem with this book is its disjointed narrative: the author head-hops excessively, from trainer Bob Baffert to jockey Victor Espinoza to owner Ahmed Zayat to competing jockeys and trainers, all in the length of a page. He sketches his human characters well enough, but he plops those character sketches into odd places that tend to disrupt the narrative a bit. He also doesn't spend nearly enough time on the actual races, which is why we're reading the book in the first place. This is not the best of my pantheon of horse racing stories (Hillenbrand and William Nack, with his brilliant, lyrical biography of Secretariat, are tied for first place there) but it will hold your interest for a few hours.
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