Champions: The Lives, Times, and Past Performances of the 20th Century's Greatest Thoroughbreds

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!