Horse Sense: An Inside Look at the Sport of Kings

Rating:
Summary: A must for all racing fans!
Review: Bert Sugar goes behind the scenes, interviewing owners, breeders, trainers, jockeys and track operators with anecdotes, history and charm only he can do.
Horse Sense follows the money behind the business of racing which was once dominated by eccentric families and strange characters.
A real nice read for any horse enthusiast!

Rating:
Summary: Too much fluff, not enough substance
Review: It becomes painfully clear very quickly that Sugar doesn't know much about his subject matter. This book is full of factual mistakes that will be glaringly obvious to anybody who really knows racing. To me, it seemed as though Sugar did some cursory research on the Internet and in existing racing books, and printed erroneous rumors and folk tales without bothering to double-check them. In addition, there are quite a few typos in the text, both in the horsey jargon (understandable MAYBE--it could muddle the uninitiated) and in the general grammar (unforgiveable--who edited this book?). For example, Sugar lists Riva Ridge as one of the best fillies ever to run. I began to hate this book as I read it, in part because of Sugar's lack of expertise in racing, but more because of his irritating style of writing. This book is full of run-on sentences, mixed metaphors, confusing similes, and way, WAY too many adjectives. And Sugar has the gall to describe another author's style as "purple". There is no information in this book that you couldn't glean out of almost any other book on racing. All you gain here is a text made twice as long as it needs to be by Sugar's blatant waste of words.

Rating:
Summary: Too much fluff, not enough substance
Review: It becomes painfully clear very quickly that Sugar doesn't know much about his subject matter. This book is full of factual mistakes that will be glaringly obvious to anybody who really knows racing. To me, it seemed as though Sugar did some cursory research on the Internet and in existing racing books, and printed erroneous rumors and folk tales without bothering to double-check them. In addition, there are quite a few typos in the text, both in the horsey jargon (understandable MAYBE--it could muddle the uninitiated) and in the general grammar (unforgiveable--who edited this book?). For example, Sugar lists Riva Ridge as one of the best fillies ever to run. I began to hate this book as I read it, in part because of Sugar's lack of expertise in racing, but more because of his irritating style of writing. This book is full of run-on sentences, mixed metaphors, confusing similes, and way, WAY too many adjectives. And Sugar has the gall to describe another author's style as "purple". There is no information in this book that you couldn't glean out of almost any other book on racing. All you gain here is a text made twice as long as it needs to be by Sugar's blatant waste of words.

Rating:
Summary: The World According to Bert
Review: The murmur of the crowd, the electricity in the air - "they're off" and the smell or dirt and cigar all permeate this fine book by Bert Sugar- Runyonesque, wheeler dealer, yarn spinner and general sports know-it-all.
You'll love the cast of characters; jock's, trainers, owners and the horses, colorful, and bizzare, a whole stew of odd ducks and delightful stories.