Review: Forego

Forego by Bill Heller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With the “Forego” volume in the Thoroughbred Champions series, I have completed reading every one of the 24 books in the series over 14 years. I’d say two to four a year was about the correct rate. Why? These are all racehorse biographies, and there are only so many ways to tell a racehorse biography. You get to where you start wondering when the jockey would show up in the story, and how long the chapter on the breeding outcomes would be. This was one of the better ones, with some interesting writing and an owner that showed some concern for the horse (not all do). I will summarize the series by saying that these books will appeal to a wide audience. I read these along with my father, while he was alive, and my father-in-law. My fathers both grew up in the era where horseracing was America’s pastime, and by reading these books they filled a void in one of the hobbies they had during their boyhood. I enjoyed the history, and the view of how all sections of the country, from the usually rich owners to the usually not rich jockeys and grooms to the obsessed trainers. Horseracing required quite an amalgamation of people and classes, allowing for different angles in approaching these stories. Well done, Eclipse Press.

I have my complete set of these books for sale on eBay. I wrote up a long description of the books that may be of interest to those interested in reading them, reproduced for your entertainment:

The Thoroughbred Legends Series was published by Eclipse Press between 2000 and 2005. Running to 24 books, all books were published in hard cover, with a photo of the subject horse glued to the front cover, and with a fabric placeholder sewn into the binding. The publishers also released a subset of these volumes in paperback editions, but the paperbacks are not included in this set. The hardbacks were mostly sold with a cream colored dust cover, but not always. Given the number of second hand books in the series sold without a dustcover, I do not believe all were sold with a dustcover, at least not for their entire sales life. I recall some book closeout stores carried a few copies of these books sold as new, but without dustcovers. There are also varieties of dustcovers. Some had cutouts to allow the horse photo on the cover to be visible. Others had the horse photo printed on the dustcover. One dustcover was not cream-colored but a dark brown. Because the books hardcovers were well designed, with the photo, a gold embossed title, and a black embossed series name “Thoroughbred Legends”, these are pretty books with or without their jackets. The hardcovers are either green, blue, brown, or red with matching endpapers in a horseshoe pattern.


Titles

1. Man O' War by Edward L Bowen, green hardcover
2. Dr. Fager by Steve Haskin, blue hardcover
3. Citation by Pauhla Smith, red hardcover
4. Go for Wand by Bill Heller, brown hardcover
5. Seattle Slew by Dan Mearns, green hardcover
6. Forego by Bill Heller, blue hardcover
7. Native Dancer by Eva Jolene Boyd, red hardcover
8. Nashua by Edward L Bowen, brown hardcover
9. Spectacular Bid by Timothy T. Capps, green hardcover
10. John Henry by Steve Haskin, blue hardcover
11. Personal Ensign by Bill Heller, red hardcover
12. Sunday Silence by Ray Paulick, brown hardcover
13. Ruffian by Milton C. Toby, green hardcover
14. Swaps: The California Comet by Barry Irwin, blue hardcover
15. Affirmed and Alydar by Timothy T. Capps, red hardcover
16. Round Table by John McEvoy, brown hardcover
17. War Admiral by Edward L Bowen, green hardcover
18. Exterminator by Eva Jolene Boyd, blue hardcover
19. Secretariat: Racing's Greatest Triple Crown Winner by Timothy T. Capps, red hardcover
20. Genuine Risk by Hallie McEvoy, brown hardcover
21. Kelso by Steve Haskin, green hardcover
22. Damascus by Lucy Heckman, blue hardcover
23. Assault by Eva Jolene Boyd, red hardcover
24. Bold Ruler by Edward L Bowen, brown hardcover

Those two types of dust jackets were ones with a photo and ones with a cut-out dust jacket, or perhaps peek-a-boo dust jacket would be more descriptive. These dust jackets had a square cut out that allows the photo affixed to the hardcover to be viewed. Eclipse Press/Blood Horse obviously put a lot of effort into this set of books, and it shows.

I began reading this series when I won my first volume from a Blood-Horse Magazine online contest in 2006. I put this collection together over the next 14 years. These books have been read by my father-in-law and me, and some bought used were probably read by others. This series is very readable. The books are short, averaging around 150 pages, and include pictures illustrating key points in the horse’s life as well as the people involved. These books can be read by young and old, and all take a common formula and provides some interesting anecdotes to set each horse apart. This would be a great addition to your personal library if you want to share the enjoyment of horses, racing, and history with younger and older generations. Older readers will be reminded of the horses popular in their youth, while younger readers will learn how racing and horse-keeping has changed over the years. I liked the mix of people involved. You are introduced to wealthy owners (and a couple of cowboy owners), as well as the many working men (mostly men) that run horse farms and training facilities. You get the unexpected and the expected wins, but also the surprising losses. And you get to see the work that goes into raising champions. A nice series of books.

Referenced in most books: Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont Stakes, Breeders Cup, Triple Crown, breeding, training, owners, races, progeny, ancestry


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