Review: Rambling Willie: The Horse that God Loved

Rambling Willie: The Horse that God Loved by Donald P. Evans
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found a copy of this book, “Rambling Willie: The Horse that God Loved”, at a used bookstore. I’ve read 30 or so books about racehorses, but hadn’t read one about a Standardbred, outside of the Dan Patch book that took place 100 years ago. This was a book of recent vintage (only 40 years ago!) covering a horse of that time. Another thing going for it was the connection to where I live, Chicago. Much of the action took place at Chicago tracks, in my quick perusal at the store. But the biggest surprise was finding the book was “autographed” by, at least I suspect, Rambling Willie himself. There’s a big inked horseshoe on the inner flyleaf, and you can see that it was made with a lot of weight behind it, as the horseshoe indented the sheets below like an embosser. Also signing the book, inside the horseshoe, were Vivian and Robert Farrington. Vivian, Bob’s wife, was half owner of the horse, and Bob was the trainer and driver. These three weren't the authors of the book, but they were the authors of the story.

Ends up this is a story of record breakers and faith. Rambling Willie holds or held a number of records for fast wins, longevity at the track, and money earned, and Bob Farrington holds records as a driver and with his family’s stable as owners and trainers. Vivian represents faith here, as she tithed her earnings to her father’s church, and believed in healing of injured horses and husbands through prayer. I came to see this book was less about the horse, who doesn’t really take on a personality here, and more about the comparison of Vivian’s faith in religion and her husbands belief in himself. It provides quite a bit to think about, and this was much more than I was expecting with a race horse book. I enjoyed the trip, but wanted a bit more about how the horse lived as his racing days were fading.


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