Authors: Nan Mooney
ISBN-13: 9780060958084, ISBN-10: 0060958081
Format: Paperback
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: March 2003
Edition: Reprint
Nan Mooney grew up in Seattle, half an hour north of Longacres racetrack, and graduated from Scripps College in California. Her work appears in The Blood-Horse, the journal of record for Thoroughbred horse racing. She lives in New York City. You can reach her at myracingheart.com.
When Nan Mooney was seven years old, she sat in her grandmother May-May's living room to watch her first horse race ... And so began a turbulent romance between a woman and a sport.
Part memoir, part journey into the compelling world of Thoroughbred horse racing, My Racing Heart gallops headlong into the wild culture and fabulous creatures that rise up around a racetrack. Nan Mooney looks at the horses, jockeys, and trainers; the gambling and corruption; and racing's age-old history and forever offbeat society. From the dusty backstretch at a small-town track to the stands at magnificent Churchill Downs, Nan Mooney captures the risks and the glory, the excitement and the passion, for horse lovers, sports fans, and anyone who has ever craved a place to run wild.
“A love poem to racing. . . A fine book and a joy to read.”
Acknowledgments and Explanations | ix | |
Introduction: An Unconventional Romance | 1 | |
Part 1 | The Starting Gate | |
Chapter 1 | Trust: The Horse of Course | 23 |
Chapter 2 | Rewriting the Rules: The Front Men--Trainers and Owners | 54 |
Chapter 3 | Leaps of Faith: Playing the Breeding Game | 89 |
Part 2 | Early Speed | |
Chapter 4 | Courage: Riding High--The Jockey's Life | 127 |
Chapter 5 | Generosity: Breaking onto the Backstretch | 159 |
Part 3 | The Stretch Run | |
Chapter 6 | Risking It All: The Art of Gambling | 187 |
Chapter 7 | Unconditional Love: The Anatomy of a Racing Fan | 216 |
Chapter 8 | Forming a Value System: Hustles, Fixes, and the Drug Controversy | 235 |
Part 4 | Crossing the Wire | |
Chapter 9 | Connections: Chasing the Kentucky Derby | 265 |
Chapter 10 | Growth: The Future of the Track | 284 |
Epilogue: The Heartbeat | 303 | |
Photograph Credits | 307 |