|
| 
 enlarge | Authors: Edgar Prado, John Eisenberg
Publisher: Harper
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $15.40
You Save: $10.55 (41%)
New (28) Used (7) Collectible (1) from $15.40
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 21439
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 006146418X
Dewey Decimal Number: 798.40092
EAN: 9780061464188
ASIN: 006146418X
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW
|
| Customer Reviews:
 EDGAR PRADO'S LAST COMMENT IN THE BOOK.... May 6, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
His last comment is "I hope I've done him justice." He most definitely has! This was a truly heartwarming story of the magnificent rapport between a jockey and a wonderful horse. They shared a kinship, and throughout the book, the reader is able to feel and rejoice in their bond. Sadly, Barbaro had to ultimately be euthanized, but you never doubt that he really felt the love that surrounded him.
Edgar Prado & Barbaro - a love story May 2, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
My Guy Barbaro: A Jockey's Journey Through Love, Triumph, and Heartbreak with America's Favorite Horse Horseracing is a sport in which the horses are too often regarded by their connections as nothing more than commodities. Not so with Barbaro. Edgar Prado's love of this great champion was tangible in his moving account of their relationship, especially as he wrote of the months that followed Barbaro's ultimately fatal injury. If we thought the only time he visited Barbaro was when the cameras were rolling, we were wrong. It is especially gratifying to learn that Barbaro's tragedy has led Prado to become a vocal advocate for the welfare of thoroughbred horses. In addition to raising money for veterinary research, Prado works with groups that rescue unwanted thoroughbreds who would otherwise end up dying under appalling conditions in foreign slaughterhouses. His efforts to improve conditions for Barbaro's breed does honor to Barbaro's memory.
A Legend in Horses May 1, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is the best book I have ever read. Mr. Prado brought such beauty and feeling to Barbaro. I followed the horse and was crushed when he was injured, then more so when he died. This book brought him into your heart and into the place of this great jockey. I hope he will write more.
Gripping story, sad ending April 13, 2008
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
It was hard for me to read this book, knowing the sad ending. I'm nuts about animals, and stories about the death of one invariably makes me tear up. I read the ending of Good Dog. Stay., for example, with tears streaming down my face, although it was the story of an old dog that had lived a long and pampered life. Barbaro, on the other hand, dies in pain at the peak of his life.
Author Edgar Prado, Barbaro's jockey, tells this heartbreaking story with skill and compassion. From the moment Prado first sees Barbaro, he is impressed. "He wasn't a sleek and slender classic beauty. He was all jock."
Prado successfully petitions the owners to let him ride the big colt. After a thrilling win in the Kentucky Derby -- with the largest margin of victory since 1946 -- Barbaro is the favorite for the Preakness. But in this second leg of the Triple Crown, the horse sustains an injury, a terrible fracture. By quickly stopping Barbaro, Prado prevents the racehorse from damaging his leg further.
Although at first it seems to go well, the recovery effort does not work. At the end Barbaro is suffering and losing weight. The big horse is put down.
Prado includes 33 color photographs, most of them of Barbaro in his glory days, racing around a track. He seems to be flying, with his feet barely touching the ground. A shot of him the day before the Preakness shows Barbaro in his stall, reaching out his long neck and nuzzling the horse next door.
That one got to me. I cried.
 A beautifully written book! April 12, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a beautifully written book. It must be very difficult for two people to collaborate on a book and come out with a single cohesive voice and style, but this book has that. Edgar Prado is a brilliant jockey and a fine man with a loving heart. This book conveys that and adds a unique new perspective to a remarkable story.
The first time he saw Barbaro, Edgar was riding another horse in the Laurel Futurity. As Barbaro broke away from the pack to win by eight lengths, Edgar says, "My horse had basically stopped running when he saw Barbaro pull away. I swore the sight had depressed him. But it had thrilled me. When you see a horse accelerate and finish like that,... you know you're seeing something special."
He describes his feelings after a phone call in which he and trainer Michael Matz agreed that Edgar would be Barbaro's new jockey: "I smiled as I hung up. I was being handed the keys to a Lamborghini."
Edgar talks about the significance of Barbaro starting out as a turf horse and switching later to dirt. Previously, Barbaro had been saddled on hard concrete floors in paddocks before racing on dirt tracks. However, preparations for the Preakness were different. "Now he was being saddled on grass, which excited him. He was a turf horse at heart,... He was never happier than when he was running on grass. The longer he stood on the grass, the more excited he became. He breathed harder. His muscles tensed. He was noticeably pumped up by the time I got on him." Barbaro was "agitated, impatient, a little too eager to get going" in the post parade. Edgar implies that this might have been a factor in the subsequent tragedy.
I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it, but I cannot give it a five-star rating. Throughout this book, Barbaro's magnificent groom, Eduardo Hernandez, is repeatedly and inexplicably called "Jose" (no last name). A quick Google during the book's editing process would have identified Eduardo so that he could have been properly acknowledged as the person who had given Barbaro such excellent and loving care.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
