Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: If you're looking for the next Seabiscuit, look elsewhere. This book isn't even remotely in the same league. As a horse racing, history, and literature buff, I was hoping this would be an informative and entertaining read. Instead I trudged through a schmaltzy, unremarkable memoir/biography. Most of the book is obvious and boring. There are redeeming parts, but I'd really only recommend it to die-hard Charismatic fans. There are much better tales out there for those looking for a good slice of horse history, some humor, and beautiful language (e.g. Seabiscuit, Stud, Horse of a Different Color).The title is also inappropriate. The book should have simply been called "Charismatic."
Rating: 
Summary: A lovely, riveting read
Review: It is unfortunate that some readers expect this book to fall into the mold of Seabiscuit - a wonderful but much simpler, ultimately nostalgic book. Three Strides is about all the complex, gritty but somehow enduringly romantic facets of racing at the turn of the 21st century. It is a haunting, heartbreaking, and I think brilliant book. If you give it the respect it deserves, you won't be able to get it out of you mind.
Rating:
Summary: True Charisma
Review: Not only does THREE STRIDES BEFORE THE WIRE offer a vivid and exceptionally privileged view into the world of horse racing, it is a beautifully told story about life. The late, great jockey Chris Antley is the book's hero, and while his story is heart-rendingly tragic, it is most decidedly not without a redemption as lasting as it was hard-won. THREE STRIDES is not only for those who love the ponies, but for anyone who treasures life. And it is an especial gift to those who have had their share of trouble along the way.
Rating:
Summary: High hopes but disappoints in the stretch
Review: Nothing is left out of this book, no matter how relevant or germaine. Being a lover of nonfiction, I was excited when I saw how much I was learning about horse racing, but I gave up. Way too much rambling and whole chapters that were not needed. I just got too tired. I don't blame the author. She wanted to tell us everything about racing, the origin of race tracks, gambling, mysterious signs and religious symbols, personal lives of jockies, and for some baffling reason, the overwrought story of this guy she met once who came down with cancer. I blame the editor. I can find dozens of sentences that I just wanted to take a red pen to. "Misplaced modifier," or "run-on sentence," or "Does not make sense." Didn't Toby tell the author that the best part, the hardest part of writing is knowing what to leave out? Very disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: Good Story: poorly written
Review: Oh how I love horseracing stories. The drama, the pathos, the agony and the defeat mixed in with some miracle victory. Mitchell chose a great story line: Charismatic and jockey Chris Antley. What a great storyline.
Only problem, is that the author is a weak, even amateurish writer. Her narrative jumped around -- her constant use of passive style prose -- proved too distracting. I am a fast reader; I had to crawl through this one just to have the sentences make sense.
The author appears to me to write on the level of a B- high school Junior. Sorry, I want more from an established author. As I was reading the book, I would call out to my wife all the mistakes the author made -- all the awkward sentences constructed. I mean, who edited this book? Any editor should be embarassed to put his/her name to this racing tome.
I don't recommend this book in spite of the good story line. Mitchell butchered it to death (crying shame) and does not deserve to be read -- let alone to make a profit from her "writings."
Rating:
Summary: not a seabiscuit ripoff
Review: This book communicates the joy and heartbreak of horseracing like few others. The author does a great job meshing her own story of loss with the tragedy of Chris Antley and Triple Crown coulda-been Charismatic. The scene in which Antley pays a surprise visit to the author's dying boyfriend is especially moving.
Rating:
Summary: "Three Strides" falls short
Review: This book explores a compelling story that was well-chronicled by racing writers throughout the country, but this book is not the best horse racing book out right now and there are others you should purchase before this one. There's no denying that the "Three Strides" story has appeal or more twists and turns than fiction in a sport that can make a grown man cry. This writer does dig deeper through personal interviews and presents information that even the most astute horse racing fans probably don't know about Charismatic, Chris Antley and D. Wayne Lukas. However, that gets weighed down by chapters such as the one on the history of gambling that, to use horse racing lingo, causes the story to hit the wall and come to a virtual stop. The best part of the story is the people, period. The most disturbing part about this book is that there are several fact errors racing fans will catch on the first read. The writer states that Worldly Manner has raced in Denmark and HOlland when in fact it had only raced in California before being sold to Arab interests, that the Preakness is 1 3/8 miles when it is 1 3/16, that Charismatic is in the Hall of Fame when he has never even been on the ballot, and that Bob Baffert is a Quarter Horse trainer from New Mexico when he is in fact from Arizona. This isn't a bad book but the fact errors, however insignificant they may seem, don't exactly sing praises. It compromises the validity of the whole thing, unfortunately. If your heart is set on a horse racing book from an insider's view, "The Perfect Ride" is a better read. It is written by a Hall of Fame jockey and takes the reader inside the sport through the cast of characters by someone who lives there. In a sport where value is paramount, spend your money on A Perfect Ride before Three Strides Before the Wire. Also buy first:
"Seabiscuit: An American Legend"
by Laura Hillenbrand (as good as they say it is and MORE) "Secretariat: The Making of a Champion"
by William Nack (the horse is timeless and the writer superb) "The Race for the Triple Crown"
by Joe Drape (inside story of Fusaichi Pegusus' Derby, very good)
Rating:
Summary: An unbelievable winner
Review: This book explores the netherworld of thoroughbreds, jockeys, trainers, breeders, owners and gamblers that make up the sport of horse racing. At the same time, to say that Three Strides Before the Wire is a book solely about horse racing doesn't do justice to its scope or its deep ambition. As Mitchell interweaves the stories of Charismatic and the people around him, as well as her own personal story of dealing with her boyfriend's illness, she provides us with an extended meditation on the ways in which our lives are dictated by chance, fate, and luck, no matter how we try to stack the odds. As Mitchell tells the story of Charismatic, she gives us remarkable insight into horse racing's many subcultures. Take the world of horse-breeding, for instance. Mitchell eloquently explains how each foal is created from an elaborate calculus of luck and science. Much is known--Charismatic, for instance, was the offspring of a graceful long-legged mare and a stocky, powerful stud, and therefore had a good chance of becoming a champion-but yet much remains left to chance: musculature, temperament, potential for injury all remain unknown, volatile, and potentially damning. Every horsebreeder takes his chances, and hopes that the offspring he engineers will yield the right genetic mix. I would argue that Mitchell's book is a successful exercise in hybridity, that it draws from biography and memoir, journalistic investigation and historical chronicle, reportage and lyrical meditation. Like Charismatic, the book preserves its parents but surpasses them.
Rating:
Summary: Not very good!
Review: This book is a disappointment to say the least. The author's account of Chris Antley and the 1999 Triple Crown lacks focus and is poorly researched. This book has many factual mistakes that even the most causal horse racing fan will catch. This book does not even come close to Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit. The author's own story of a dying boyfriend is not as effective as it should be. There are several horse racing books out right now that are much better: Jockey Gary Stevens manages to give readers a more compelling and touching portrait of Chris Antley in just one chapter of his
autobiography The Perfect Ride, then Mitchell does in her whole book!
Rating:
Summary: Moving, Fantastic Read
Review: This book is a great read. Anyone intrested in lifes mysteries, weather these manifest around love or horseracing will love this book. Mitchell is an acute observer and story teller, the racing passages had me sitting on the edge of my chair and the unfolding of her relationship with Chuck gave a delicasy and import to her themes of chance, love and transformation.
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