Sports & Recreation : Equestrian

Cashing a winning ticket at the racetrack usually takes more than luck. This primer teaches the basics of betting, explaining the types of wagers from simple win, place, or show bets to exotic exactas, trifectas, and daily doubles, to how payoffs are determined, and much more. The Blood-Horse Authoritative Guide to Betting Thoroughbreds will help readers feel more knowledgeable and comfortable at the betting windows. more...

Price: $9.99

The classic, lavishly illustrated guide to grooming for the show ring, now updated and spiral-bound. A perennial bestseller, Grooming to Win is a must-have reference for competitors in every equestrian discipline and sport. Illustrated t more...

Price: $34.99

Handicapping the Wall Street Way: Picking Xtra Winners at the Track goes beyond conventional handicapping and offers the author's unique handicapping theory based on nearly 20 years of security and market analysis experience. Starting with the basic premise that pricing or odds inefficiencies offer spectacular opportunities, the author draws parallels between the stock market and pari-mutuel betting pool and explains how to target and exploit these inefficiencies. The author provides psychological profiles of horseplayers as well as an exercise to help the reader determine his or her betting profile. Carefully crafted betting strategies are discussed in an easy-to-follow format for each type of player profile. Short on fluff, Handicapping the Wall Street Way: Picking Xtra Winners at the Track provides a money-management technique to help make a day at the track a profitable one. more...

Price: $9.99

The greatest rivalry in modern racing history began with little fanfare on June 15, 1977. The more experienced Affirmed defeated Alydar, who was making his racing debut in the Youthful Stakes at Belmont Park. In nine subsequent meetings, Affirmed got the better of Alydar six times, often by just inches. Their meetings, especially during the Triple Crown season of 1978, became the stuff of racing lore. Affirmed claimed the Triple Crown, but Alydar tested him to the limits each time in stirring stretch drives that left onlookers limp. Indeed, many racing historians consider their Belmont Stakes to be the greatest race of the 20th century. To tell one’s story is to tell the other’s, so closely intertwined are the lives of Affirmed and Alydar. Author Tim Capps, who witnessed many of the Affirmed-Alydar races, chronicles their early years, first encounters, and epic clashes. He also tells the stories of the people who raised, trained, and rode these titans. Affirmed was bred in Florida by financier Louis Wolfson, trained by the legendary Laz Barrera, and ridden by Steve Cauthen, known as “The Kid.” Alydar entered life on the historic grounds of Calumet Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, the last great horse of the old Wright regime. Trained by the young John Veitch, Alydar would have been a Triple Crown winner in any other year. As a stallion, Alydar surpassed his nemesis although Affirmed found surprising success as a sire of turf horses. more...

Price: $9.99

For a nation recovering from years of war, a little chestnut colt named Assault gave people hope and inspiration as he beat the odds to become the 1946 Triple Crown winner. Born in the midst of World War II, the aptly named Assault showed the same courage and fortitude as the American servicemen fighting overseas. As a baby, Assault injured his foot so severely that he was almost destroyed. But Assault managed to recover, and although he forever walked with a limp, when he ran, no trace of his injury existed. Instead he flew with speed and grace, earning the nickname “the clubfooted comet.” Raised on the vast expanse of King Ranch in South Texas, Assault became the pride and joy of the Lone Star State with his racing heroics. Author Eva Jolene Boyd, a native Texan, remembers seeing Assault at King Ranch when she was young, and she proudly tells the story of this courageous legend. more...

Price: $9.99