Secretariat: The Making Of A Champion
by William Nack
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Book Summary Information
Author: William NackEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-04
ISBN: 0306811332
Number of pages: 367
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Book Reviews of Secretariat: The Making Of A Champion
Book Review: A Girl Who Loves Horses
Summary: 5 Stars
Thirty six years ago I was a girl who loved horses. I fell for Secretariat because he was beautiful. Over the years I have gone to the races to see horses run, because they are beautiful. Nack's book is not about beautiful horses. It is not about flowing manes and streaming tails and the loving relationship between a horse and his humans. It is about horse racing and in particular describing what made Secretariat the phenomenon he was. In clear, magazine like prose--only occasionally lyrical -- Nack covers his breeding, the unromantic coupling that produced the red horse, his gentling and training. More centrally, it covers the background of the farms and families that owned and managed the horse. The two families key to Secretariat are the Chenerys of Meadow Farm, particularly Penny Chenery Tweedy, and the Hancocks of legendary Claiborn Farm. Penny Tweedy and Seth Hancock are nearly as bred for their businesses as the horses they raised. In taking over the management of Meadow Farm, Mrs. Tweedy has to learn the economics of horse racing and take the chances that this expensive and complex industry demands -- and that Nack ably describes. It is a successful farm, but with her father's death, she must do something to raise the cash to pay the stiff inheritance taxes. The syndication of Secretariat raised a then-record breaking $6MM in four days by the nearly as inexperienced, but farmed raised, Seth Hancock. The investors bought into the 1972 Horse of the Year with a fine albeit brief one year record. They were betting that the virgin horse would race well in 1973 and earn enough in stud fees to earn a nice return on their investment.
With this understanding well in place, Nack describes in detail the races of 1973. His race descriptions combine technical detail (racing to the 12s), summaries of the competition, the jockey's strategies. The race narratives get your heart pounding and add suspense when the outcome is already known. These are the best race descriptions I have read--but I could be prejudiced, because he is describing the best running horse of -- perhaps ever. Broken down by starts and furlongs and stretches, the reader is shifted between the being in the saddle from jockey Ron Turcotte's point of view to the view from the rail, watching the entire field. These are thrilling, exciting, moving passages that educate the reader at the same time--strategies around the curve, horses bumping one another, assessing the competition in split second observations.
Nack also describes the players. Mrs. Tweedy does not show as well as her public persona suggests, much to my surprise. (Does Nack not like Mrs. Tweedy?) The Martins who trained Sham also appear badly, supporting that impression with some whining quotes. Most other figures that peopled those two years show well: the Phipps family, the Hancocks, the trainer Lucien Lurien, Ronny Turcotte, groom Eddie Sweat (who seems under served by this book), Charles Hatton, the Racing Form writer who loved Secretariat from the start and score of others who directly or peripherally were part of Secretariat's life. These are all described as a reporter would describe them, without attempts at psychological insight but through observations and extensive quotations. This is not writing for the little girl who loves horses, this is writing for the adults who people horse racing or would like to.
While Nack does not emphasize it unduly, one thing does come through for the girl who loves horses. More often than not, Secretariat ran his own races. The specific strategy was up to his jockey, but when Secretariat felt like running --and he often did -- Turcotte simply let him run, without a whip, without much encouragement at all. The Triple Crown races are deeply detailed but two of them particularly stand out. At the Preakness, early in the race, horse and jockey move from their usual last place out of the gate and circles the field in a quarter mile in a burst of speed that is amazing, stunning all by itself...and all the more stunning when the horse maintains the sprinter's pace. And the 1972 Belmont is beyond superlatives--Secretariat races the small field entirely on his own, Tucotte "sitting chilly", winning by 31 lengths, moving 'like a tremendous machine', running because he loves to run. I wanted to read the races with the book in one hand and the race clips on You Tube in front of me. Nack explains the races in a way my own observation never could, but, boy, to see that big red horse run is enough to make you cry. That is, if you are, or were, a girl who loves horses.
Summary of Secretariat: The Making Of A Champion
In 1973, Secretariat, the greatest thoroughbred in horse-racing history, won the Triple Crown. The only horse to ever break the two-minute mark in winning the Kentucky Derby until recent winner Monarchos, Secretariat also pulled off one of the most astounding victories in the annals of horse racing by winning the Belmont Stakes by a record-breaking thirty-one lengths. Now William Nack updates his acclaimed portrait with a new afterword that examines the legacy of one of ESPN's "100 Greatest Athletes of the Century": the only horse to ever grace the covers of Time, Newsweek, and Sports Illustrated all in the same week.
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