Racelines: Observations on Horse Racing's Glorious History

Rating:
Summary: Informative and Enjoyable Read
Review: Philip Von Borries's Racelines is an anthology of 42-horseracing-related stories written from 1979 through 1998. In his introduction Von Borries calls them stories once and articles twice, and his sports-journalism and folksy writing make both designations accurate. Most of his stories are tributes to horseracing's racers, riders, and trainers, but he also includes one for a longtime horseracing photographer and another for a Civil War General. Imbedded within some essays are added tributes to owners and grooms, but, while tributes supply the majority of Von Borries's stories, there is much variety in this anthology.

Some of Von Borries's stories are not stories. Instead, one is a list of humorous horseracing expressions and another a two-page glossary of horseracing terms. Yet another is a catalog of 100 horseracing films, including Von Borries's top ten and ten more given honorable mention, and another is a list of black horsemen and the Triple-Crown races they have won as either jockeys or trainers. In several tributes, Von Borries introduces his protagonist with background data before getting to his horseracing feats. For example, in "The Wizard of Orleans," about horseracing photographer Louis Nevin Hodges, Sr., Von Borries tells us early that Hodges, age 70, is mild mannered, represents goodness, but is not ordinary. Further, he tempts us when he tells of his visit to Hodges's den, "lined with pictures of the most famous racehorses in American racing history, a mere sample of what passed through his lens from the late 1940s to the early 1980s" (44). By the time Von Borries finishes his pre-story buildup, we want to know how Hodges achieved horseracing fame between the late 1940s and early 1980s, and the author does not disappoint. But don't expect detail. Von Borries's short stories provide only biographical sketches with the brunt of his coverage related to his subject's major achievements in the world of horseracing. Background buildup is a strategy employed often and successfully by Von Borries.

Another strategy Von Borries employs, even if unwittingly, is to explore the variety of horseracing history. His essay, "War and Peace," is about how Civil War Union General Philip Henry Sheridan, the first president of old Washington Park Racetrack in Chicago, helped limit the devastating Chicago fire of 1871 with fire breaks. The horse industry's tribute was to name a race, the Sheridan Stakes, after the general in 1884. The race has been an annual event since. Von Borries also includes several biographical sketches of black horsemen prominent in the late 19th- and early 20th-century. "Cruising Past 7,000 and Climbing" furnishes biographical sketches of eleven trainers with 3,000 or more wins to their credit, and "Giant: Cigar's Win streak" includes capsule histories of the 23 American thoroughbreds with the longest winning streaks dating back to the 18th century. If there is a weakness in Von Borries's enjoyable writing, it lies in the sameness and overzealous nature of his tributes. For example, when the standardbred, Niatross, broke the one mile pacing record in October 1980, Von Borries wrote, "Niatross appealed to all that is good and noble and decent in life itself. In an age of antiheroes, he had resurrected the rare personage of a true hero who could endure and overcome all challenges," and later, "He had reaffirmed basic human values, exalted the beat of life, and sanctified the pursuit of excellence. Freed temporarily from our natural reserve, we dared to live and dream" (193). There are similar overblown tributes to racers Holy Bull and Dr. Fager. Too much personification of horses deserving credit as fast runners, but not as miracle rainbow makers representing all that is right and good and almost Godly in humanity. Moreover, he does the same with his human protagonists, often making them almost cherubic. The world, its people, and its horses are just not that glowing. A little more realism, a little more reality in his humanoid horses and his human heroes would serve well.

Still, Von Borries's stories are easy and enjoyable reads. Most represent an enjoyable trip into horseracing history from more than a century past to the present.