Rating: 
Summary: Great Champions of Thoroughbred Racing
Review: "Champions" by the editors and writers of "The Daily Racing Form" is subtitled: "The Lives, Times, and Past Performances of the 20th Century's Greatest Thoroughbreds." This does not necessarily mean that all of the great Thoroughbreds are included in the text of the book. Gallorette, for example, has her lifetime track performance record included in "Past Performances: 1940's," but there is no text description of this fine racing mare's history.This is a big, glossy, coffee-table-sized book with many photographs (some in color) of the century's great Thoroughbreds. Another book with a similar theme is "Thoroughbred Champions: Top 100 Racehorses of the 20th Century" by the staff of the "Blood-Horse." I'd choose "The Daily Racing Form (DRF)" book over the "Blood-Horse" book for better writing, and vice-versa for better organization and price---the DRF 'Champions' is organized by decade and the "Blood Horse" Champions is organized by Thoroughbred (and is much less expensive). All of the triple crown winners are in the DRF "Champions" text, as are the sterling performers of the 'Class of 1954:' Bold Ruler; Round Table; Gallant Man; Gen. Duke, Iron Liege; and Federal Hill. After listening to many of the racing commentators castigate the current crop of three-year-olds as 'ordinary,' it is a pleasure to read about what was probably the "finest 3-year-old campaign in history"---Bold Ruler was "one of the fastest horses ever to race in America" and went on to have an extraordinary career at stud. "Round Table is hailed as one of the finest turf horses of the century," and of course 1957 was the year that Bill Shoemaker misjudged the finish line during the Kentucky Derby and stood up in his stirrups too soon, giving the race to Iron Liege over Gallant Man. If you enjoyed "Seabiscuit" and would like to learn more about the great race horses of the twentieth century, I recommend both this book, and its rival by the staff of the "Blood-Horse."
Rating:
Summary: good book
Review: A great coffee table book for everyone to have in their living rooms. Highly Recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Champions
Review: An excellent book, especially for anyone wishing to view Thoroughbred bloodlines or to peruse the chances of, perhaps, getting that "magic" nick with one's broodmare(s). I will use this book many time in the future, and hopefully, will be able to put together that magic cross of bloodlines.
Rating:
Summary: Daily Racing Form did a Great Job on this one
Review: For all of us in the Horse Racing business as owners, toutes, fans, etc, everyone knows the Daily Racing Form is the key publication for past performance data and news. The PP's(past performances) of famous champions of the past really open your eyes as you see that some of them ran within days of their last start in Major Stakes races and others ran at tracks that no longer exist, or across the country and both coasts in the same season. The best of the best are in here, and as DRF did a very good job with arrangement and information. Its like looking at the Breeders Cup Entries of the Immortals ! Best Regards to All, MC - TheStickRules.Com
Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: i already wrote a review praising this book, but i wanted to leave another to let people know that they don't have to pay the extravagant prices wanted by the thieves selling here on amazon. simply go to drf.com and you can get this book for the list price of $50. i'm not affiliated with them, i just think it's wrong for someone to try and over-charge by 7 times because someone might not know where else they could get the book.
Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: I bought this as a birthday gift for my 25 year-old daughter, and it's her favorite of anything I have ever given her! She has always been really good at spouting names, numbers, years, tenths of a seconds, etc. Now she'll be insufferable! This book is absolutely loaded with all the racing stats you could ever think of! She actually WHOOPED when she opened the package!!! She opened it and explained all the racing stats to me--she understood every bit as soon as she saw it (I was still in boondoggled land!) The book DID have some of my favorite recent horses in it (such as Bertrando and Paseana) and it had ALL of her favorites in there! It also contains pretty much all the great horses of the century. One thing even I noticed and really loved in this book, is it tells who the jockey was in each race. And of course, the unsurpassable Secretariat is in here; all his races. I still think that seeing him win the Belmont and with it the Triple Crown, was the greatest moment in sports history! The reruns are unreal, but there was NOTHING like seeing it happen! I can't speak as an owner, trainer, or one who bets. But as a "serious fan" of racing, I can truly say this is one extraordinary reference manual to have on hand. WELL worth the price!
Rating:
Summary: A FANTASTIC REFERENCE TO HAVE ON HAND!
Review: I bought this as a birthday gift for my 25 year-old daughter, and it's her favorite of anything I have ever given her! She has always been really good at spouting names, numbers, years, tenths of a seconds, etc. Now she'll be insufferable! This book is absolutely loaded with all the racing stats you could ever think of! She actually WHOOPED when she opened the package!!! She opened it and explained all the racing stats to me--she understood every bit as soon as she saw it (I was still in boondoggled land!) The book DID have some of my favorite recent horses in it (such as Bertrando and Paseana) and it had ALL of her favorites in there! It also contains pretty much all the great horses of the century. One thing even I noticed and really loved in this book, is it tells who the jockey was in each race. And of course, the unsurpassable Secretariat is in here; all his races. I still think that seeing him win the Belmont and with it the Triple Crown, was the greatest moment in sports history! The reruns are unreal, but there was NOTHING like seeing it happen! I can't speak as an owner, trainer, or one who bets. But as a "serious fan" of racing, I can truly say this is one extraordinary reference manual to have on hand. WELL worth the price!
Rating:
Summary: A must-have for fans who appreciate the history of racing
Review: This is a big coffee-table book for the parimutuel bettor in your life, in my case, me. There is a chapter for each decade of the 1900s, recounting a few horses' careers and several memorable races, accompanied by pictures of horses in action and at rest. Most of the photos are in black-and-white, and while many are simple side shots of great horses, some of the race photos are stirring, and anyway, the reason for the book's existence is to celebrate and honor the greatest achievements of the thoroughbred bloodline. The bast part of the book, then, is the list at the end of each chapter of the full, career past performances of each of the horses mentioned. And that alone is worth the price of admission. For those of us who appreciate the illustrative, succinct, descriptive nature of the Daily Racing Form, what better use for the power of a single entry than as a vessel for recounting the career of a great thoroughbred? And there are hundreds of them here. We all know how amazing it is to look at the sadly abbreviated line for Ruffian, say, or the now more nostalgic one for Man O' War, but there are so many other great horses here to get reacquainted with. And through them, and the decade summaries, the history of racing. Well done, DRF.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrific data book
Review: This is a thrilling book for data-crunchers like me! It is particularly satisfying that there are almost 500 horses' PPs in here, and not a paltry 15 or whatever. Of course, I can't think of any book that even had that many PPs; only individual horse books (sometimes) have all charts or at least the summary PPs. My only hesitations made me down-grade a bit, but frankly they are minor; I wish again that there was a 4.5 or so! 1st, it's the opposite issue w/BH "Thoroughbred Champions: Top 100"; in "Champions" there is some good and sizable commentary on each era, but considering there are almost 500 horses, many of them get snuffed out of any discussion at all, so you miss some other data such as records set, etc (my 1 gripe about DRF PPs - they should have a column to designate if a record was set). 2nd, I was a little disappointed to see relatively few horses from the 1st FOUR decades (1890s-1920s all lumped together, unlike the rest), while other single decades get probably close to 70 horses average. I would have loved to see some more horses besides just a few Greats displayed there, since other decades get "Good" non-award winners listed fully. I do think it's nice that horses considered merely "good" who never went into the HOF or even got 1 award are paid attention, I just wish they had done that for much earlier horses, too. (Not to mention glaring omissions of other Greats; where is Artful? Peter Pan? Salvator? How could they miss Salvator?). Omission note: Coaltown's (1940s prime stablemate to Citation) entire 1st half of PPs are missing. You'll only see the last half of his career. (Will DRF do anything? Doubtful! Never even got a response about it.) However, if you've been saving every scrap of DRF newspaper that has some old horse's PPs on it, e-mailing other fans for their copies, or buying up every old ARM just to get a look at a couple more old horses, like I have, this is an *absolute God-send*! Now there are only a few more horses for whom you'll still have to scavenge!
Rating:
Summary: champions yesterday and today
Review: What a wonderful book - filled with statistics, stories and sometimes pictures. It takes the champions of the 20th century (American thoroughbreds, for example, Horse of the Year, and tells the stories of their racing careers decade by decade. Each chapter of text is followed by Past Performances, as put together by the DRF. There are stories about long-ago horses I haven't seen since Robertson's History of Thoroughbred Racing in America. It's going to take a long time to read this book - not because it's slow reading, but because I keep going back and forth in time to compare stories and speed fractions.
One thing I'd change - even if they didn't have the space to tell the story of each champion, I wish they'd found the space to have a picture of each one. As they say.....one picture is worth....... I love looking at pictures of the old racers and the newer ones - line them up next to each other and look at their relative build, then go to the track and see who reminds you of the great old geldings or the powerful sprinters. Now THAT's data!
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