Book description
"The big horse," in racing vernacular, is the animal that
brings fame and fortune to a stable. He's the heavyweight champion, the
All-American quarterback, the four-legged Michael Jordan of the barn.
Seabiscuit was once Tom Smith's "big horse." A generation ago,
Secretariat was Lucien Lauren's. In 2003, Funny Cide was Barclay Tagg's.
In sixty years as a trainer, P. G. Johnson had never had one -- until Volponi.
P. G. Johnson was a blue-collar wizard, a hardscrabble tough guy who
had come east from Chicago, determined to make his mark on New York.
And he did. He became leading trainer at all three New York tracks --
Saratoga, Belmont, and Aqueduct -- as well as at Florida's Tropical
Park. And he did it without ever winning a Triple Crown or Breeders'
Cup event, or having "the big horse."
"I never knew how to kiss rich people's asses, and I got too old
to learn. If no owner was going to give me a big horse, I figured I'd
have to find one myself," he said. He did that, in his seventies,
buying a mare for ,000, breeding her to a ,000 stallion, and in 1998
producing Volponi, the horse that would change his life.
In October 2002, weakened by surgery and radiation treatment for
cancer, P. G. watched Volponi -- the longest shot in the field at 43
to 1 -- bring home more than million by winning the Breeders' Cup
Classic, the richest race in America.
The following summer at Saratoga, McGinniss -- journalist,
investigative reporter, and horse racing obsessive -- began showing
up, more Tuesdays with Morrie than Guys and Dolls, at P.
G.'s barn in the predawn hours to listen to the inside racing stories
and lore P. G. had gathered. McGinniss came to appreciate that Johnson
was not only a stellar horseman but an American original whose wit and
wisdom carried far beyond the confines of the racetrack.
As for Volponi, the big horse had given P. G. the perfect Disney
ending with the Breeders' Cup victory, and, indeed, Disney soon bought
film rights to P. G.'s life story. "He'll be even better next
year," P. G. had said, but by the time McGinniss got to Saratoga,
Volponi had not won a race in nine months. His faith undiminished, P.
G. continued to race Volponi against the best, at Saratoga and beyond,
until in the end it came down to the 2003 Breeders' Cup Classic in
Santa Anita, a race only one horse in history had ever won twice. As
fires burned in the Southern California hills, Volponi -- with Funny
Cide's jockey, Jose Santos, in the saddle -- ran the last race of his life.
This book is about what happened that day, about what came after, and
about much of what had come before. It's the most exciting, rewarding,
and heartwarming story about the world of horse racing that you'll
ever read, by one of America's finest writers, at the top of his form.
Joe McGinniss is the author of ten previous books,
including The Selling of the President, Going to Extremes, Fatal
Vision, Blind Faith, Cruel Doubt, and The Miracle of Castel
di Sangro. He has five children and seven grandchildren. He
lives in Massachusetts with the writer and editor Nancy Doherty.
