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Secretariat: The Making of a Champion | 
 enlarge | Author: William Nack
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  44 reviews
Sales Rank: 241470
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 1.1
ISBN: 0306811332
Dewey Decimal Number: 798
EAN: 9780306811333
ASIN: 0306811332
Publication Date: April 2002
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Product Description
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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| Customer Reviews: Read 39 more reviews...
 A Girl Who Loves Horses August 16, 2008
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.
Wow! June 27, 2008
This is an excellent read. Heart pounding, zooming, electric excitement page after page. William Nack sure can write, here in the last paragraph of the book he describes Secretariat on the day of his arrival at Claiborne, at the end of his racing career:
"Outside the sun was down and it grew colder now by the grove of trees in the dark by the stallion barn. Leaves fell, and a faint wind strummed and turned along the trees that rose along the paddocks in the back. Then in the distance, beyond the Claiborne fields toward the home called Marchmont, the sound of a horse whinnying rose. Secretariat came to the window of his stall, and through he darkness of it you could see nothing but rims of his eyes and hear the breathing in the quiet. The sound of the whinnying rose again, and beyond that and beyond the rows of fences and the fields of grass and the salmon colored sky, beyond the stand of trees strung out along the skies of Paris, there was the sound of horses charging the bend and the crowd on its feet roaring and the announcer calling the name of a lone figure of a horse reaching and snapping, pounding in a rush at the turn for home."
Lovely, lyrical and brimming with the magic that Secretariat inspired in many hearts. An intimate, detailed and fitting testament to perfection, to the great Secretariat.
Excellent June 10, 2008
Just finished this book. The book flows very quickly and is very pleasant to read. Finished it in a couple of days, which is a testament to how readable it is. The book is also extremely informative, providing an excellent description of Secretariat's breeding, training and racing career, with the Triple Crown races being the centerpiece of the book. I enjoy horse racing and have become a huge fan of Secretariat who raced before my time. This book doesn't disappoint in the detail it provides. However what is most important to me is the degree to which I was engrossed by the narrative. Even though you know what happens in the end you find yourself lost in the story. It's definitely worth reading.
Secretariat: The Making of a Champion August 26, 2007
This is a WONDERFUL book! Received promptly. Loved every page! Thank you so much! Mia Rose Mahoney
The Heart Of A Titan February 25, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Ask anyone in the Thoroughbred industry who is 40-ish what was a major factor in getting into the game and I wager one response will be watching Big Red in 1972 and 1973.
Secretariat dominated the sport and captured the oftentimes fleeting attention of American pop culture in his memorable Triple Crown performances and beyond. To show his staying power, there are still hats, T-shirts, mugs, beanie dolls, bobbleheads and other souvenirs that celebrate his iconic career.
Author William Nack presents a truly insider's account of Secretariat through unprecedented access to the team around the racer. The reader rides the unique pace in the barn area, the highs & lows in training & racing and gets a better understanding to the controversial decision to retire Big Red after his three year old season.
The current edition includes a moving tribute to Big Red that initially appeared in Sports Illustrated. Secretariat was euthanized due to complications from laminitis, the malady that ultimately doomed Barbaro.
Secretariat was a larger than life athlete and Nack captures the nuances of what it took to become a champion.
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