Thoroughbred Nation - by Natalie A Zacek (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From the colonial era to the beginning of the twentieth century, horse racing was by far the most popular sport in America. Great numbers of Americans and overseas visitors flocked to the nation's tracks, and others avidly followed the sport in both general-interest newspapers and specialized periodicals.

Thoroughbred Nation offers a detailed yet panoramic view of thoroughbred racing in the United States, following the sport from its origins in colonial Virginia and South Carolina to its boom in the Lower Mississippi Valley, and then from its post-Civil War rebirth in New York City and Saratoga Springs to its opulent mythologization of the "Old South" at Louisville's Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. Natalie A. Zacek introduces readers to an unforgettable cast of characters, from "plungers" such as Virginia plantation owner William Ransom Johnson (known as the "Napoleon of the Turf") and Wall Street financier James R. Keene (who would wager a fortune on the outcome of a single competition) to the jockeys, trainers, and grooms, most of whom were African American. While their names are no longer known, their work was essential to the sport. Zacek also details the careers of remarkable, though scarcely remembered, horses, whose achievements made them as famous in their day as more recent equine celebrities such as Seabiscuit or Secretariat.

Based upon exhaustive research in print and visual sources from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States, Thoroughbred Nation will be of interest both to those who love the sport of horse racing for its own sake and to those who are fascinated by how this pastime reflects and influences American identities.

Review Quotes

"Thoroughbred Nation shows how individual racehorse owners, racetrack entrepreneurs, and jockey clubs made going to the races an activity many thousands of Americans relished for reasons far beyond the dazzling exploits of the horses and their jockeys. With rich character sketches and a fascinating pivot around the Civil War, Zacek's book illustrates how regional variations, economics, technology, and politics repeatedly reshaped how, and how successfully, elite Americans in different places used racetracks and race-going to frame their wealth and to manage their interactions with--or isolation from--more humble racing fans."--Kirsten E. Wood, author of Accommodating the Republic: Taverns in the Early United States

"A brilliant study. . . . In Zacek's capable hands, horse racing opens a window on the cultural differences separating North and South, the formation of performance of class, the rise of mass culture, and the impact of race on the sport, especially the history of the Black jockeys who dominated it before the Civil War. Beautifully written, convincingly argued, and deeply engaged with a wide historiography, the book is sure to attract an appreciative audience inside and outside the academy. Off to the races!"--Randy J. Sparks, author of Africans in the Old South: Mapping Exceptional Lives across the Atlantic World

"Prior to the rise of professional team sports, horse racing was America's pastime, and Natalie Zacek's engagingly written history fills an important gap in our understanding of the sport. Weaving together analyses of race and class with an appreciation for the economic and cultural complexities of horse racing, Zacek persuasively illuminates the ways in which the sport reflected broader society. A must-read for anyone interested in American culture."--Jonathan Daniel Wells, author of The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War

About the Author

Natalie A. Zacek is a senior lecturer in American studies at the University of Manchester. Her previous book, Settler Society in the English Leeward Islands, 1670-1776, won the Royal Historical Society's Gladstone Book Prize.