The Fast Ride

Spectacular Bid and the Undoing of a Sure Thing

Jack Gilden

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Hardback

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English

University of Nebraska Press
14 July 2023

History of the Americas; Horse racing

"In an era of spectacular thoroughbreds, Spectacular Bid was perhaps the most exalted racehorse of them all. In 1979 he won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes-and transcended his sport on a run of twelve consecutive stakes victories. But he lost his quest for the Triple Crown with a third-place finish in the Belmont Stakes due to a series of bizarre events that have never before been accurately reported.

In The Fast Ride, Jack Gilden tells the story of what really happened the day the Bid lost the biggest race of his life. Along the way, he introduces the reader to a cast of characters from the gilded age of late twentieth-century horse racing, from Bid's owners, the renowned Meyerhoff family, to Grover ""Buddy"" Delp, the fast-talking trainer, to teenage jockey Ronnie Franklin, whose meteoric rise to fame with Spectacular Bid came at the cost of his innocence and well-being. Also present are four of the era's magnificent Latino riders, Angel Cordero Jr., Jacinto Vasquez, Georgie Velasquez, and Ruben Hernandez, who all felt the sting of rejection and bigotry during their long careers even as they raised the level of competition to a feverish pitch.

The Fast Ride is the story of a great racehorse, unfulfilled dreams, the exhilaration and steep price of striving at all costs, and an American era in which getting everything you ever wanted could be the most empty and unfulfilling sensation of all."

By: Jack Gilden
Imprint: University of Nebraska Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781496230508
ISBN 10: 1496230507
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 14 July 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jack Gilden is a past winner of the Simon Rockower journalism award. He is the author of Collision of Wills: Johnny Unitas, Don Shula, and the Rise of the Modern NFL (Nebraska, 2018). He also consults for businesses about their messaging and teaches journalism and composition at the college level.

Reviews for The Fast Ride: Spectacular Bid and the Undoing of a Sure Thing

Gilden takes the reader inside the stables and development of a jockey and a race horse in a manner that shows both the beauty and the ugliness of this sport. This is a book anyone interested in horse racing, especially during that era, must add to their bookshelf. -Lance Smith, Guy Who Reviews Sports Books Jack Gilden's superb reporting turns the story of a great American racehorse into a riveting lesson about the difference between perception and reality. Spectacular Bid and his wild cast of human connections positively pulsate with energy. -John Eisenberg, author of The League: How Five Rivals Created the NFL and Launched a Sports Empire Both haunting and harrowing-Jack's detailed account of Spectacular Bid's unique history also serves as a fascinating snapshot of American society and its complicated obsession with the sport of kings. -Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio host Jack Gilden has written a fascinating, never-before-told, and occasionally lurid tale on the great racehorse Spectacular Bid. Meticulously reported and beautifully written, it's as behind-the-scenes, the-barns-and-the-jockeys'-room as any racing fan could ever hope for, definitely a must-read for anyone who's ever been off to the races, or not. -Leonard Shapiro, retired longtime reporter, columnist, and sports editor at the Washington Post