The Fast Ride: Spectacular Bid and the Undoing of A Sure Thing

[Mara]

Author is Jack Gilden.

It’s a deep dive into the backstory of the people surrounding The Bid and the tragic downfall of jockey Ronnie Franklin.

I was 11 during Spectacular Bid’s 3yo season, and I remember the fuss made over not just the horse but his young jockey, hailed as the next Cauthen. I also remember trainer Bud Delp’s loudmouthed braggadocio and thinking he was kind of obnoxious.

And I recall various press tidbits here and there over the years about Franklin and his addiction problems. Want to guess who gave him his first lines of cocaine?

It’s a terrific read but so sad. The author spoke with several of the top jockeys of the era - Cordero, Velasquez, Vasquez - and revealed new-to-me information on just how bad the racism was for the Hispanic/Latino jockeys. I knew they’d faced it, but only that, no details or personal stories.

Highly recommend. The horse, as always, is the only one who emerges with his character intact.

[ThreeWishes]

As a child I coveted Spectacular Bid. I used to cut out newspaper articles about him and paste them in my closet. This was 7 year old April. I adored him.

[Mara]

I had a scrapbook that I started in 1977 with Seattle Slew - all of the press clippings after each of the TC races.
I didn’t save any clippings about the 1979 Belmont, and I think I quit adding to it after Genuine Risk’s Derby win. (There’s a great story in the book in the thread title about Jacinto Vasquez threatening LeRoy Jolley with a baseball bat when he thought Jolley was putting Cordero on Genuine Risk instead of him!)

[monalisa]

Great book! Fun read and love this history behind this horse. Another really good one if you can find it is In the Winners Circle. Story of the trainers (the Jones boys) at Calumet during their reign. Author is Joe Hirsch and Gene Plowden.

[axl]

Ouch that one is $96 on Thrift Books!
Ordered the book in the OP, though. Sorry to report it was the last copy they had.

[Texarkana]

I’ve been reading this book for, uh, a few months now. Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying it, but a few other books took priority and got finished first. Need to remember to finish this one.

[Mara]

It does get bogged down in a couple of sections; they could have edited out much of the Meyerhoff family deep dive, for example, and all the stuff about the personalities in the Maryland Jockey Club I found mostly irrelevant to the main story.
The author did his research, but much of it could have been condensed. I sort of speed-read my way through stuff I already knew, like the history of Pimlico.

[shiloh]

I read this and found it fascinating. People forget that this industry not only gobbles up and spits out thousands of horses but does the same to the humans that work with them.

The history was interesting but yeah, it could have been left out.

[cristalle]

@Mara

The horse, as always, is the only one who emerges with his character intact.

And what a great horse he was! Spectacular for sure.

[dressagetraks]

I’ll have to look for this. Loved Spectacular Bid. IMHO, the best of the “didn’t win” horses who had their shot at a Triple Crown.

I’m about 1/3 of the way into Dream Derby about Black Gold, which I got in my Secret Santa box this year, and it’s probably my favorite Avalyn Hunter book so far. I have several of hers in my library, and my general summary with her is usually extremely well researched, obviously loved her subject, and can get a bit dry. Black Gold, however, is holding the impulsion very well so far for me.