Have you ever heard sports nuts start arguing about some niche point? How their passion seems to bubble over and with it, a tidal wave of information, jargon, and references to a past that you didn't know? That's at the center of "The Greatest Racehorse?", where Mark Shrager weighs the career of Man-o-War against a parade of Thoroughbred greats. For each match-up, Shrager takes a representative great (for example, the persistence of Sunday Silence), retells how the horse exemplified these qualities, and then contemplates whether Man-o-War was superior in this quality or not.

What's good: Without a doubt, this is a book by an expert and it is written for those with a love of racing. In addition, the author provides data analysis to make some important points, like the wild spiking of purses in races across the 20th century, as well as the increase in Thoroughbred crops across the same time.

What's iffier: At times, the book slips into the kind of tired sports language you'd find in a newspaper column. You can almost feel the author trying to figure out new ways to say a horse simply won, for example.

In addition, I felt like a critical element in his argument shows up rather abruptly, breaking the pattern he'd established throughout the book.

Otherwise, I enjoyed the book as someone who has followed racing for a long time now and I greatly appreciated the depth of care to the topic here.

Anything horse-related, you can color me a fan of. This was a really cool look at Man O' War, a horse that I really enjoy (one of my favorite books growing up was the book Man O' War by Walter Farley. It's certainly hard to deny that he was an explosion in the racing industry, having sired the great War Admiral, who famously raced (and lost) against Seabiscuit in what was referred to as, "The Race of the Century". War Admiral and Seabiscuit were related, by the way, with Man O' War being the sire of Hard Tack (Biscuit's dad). Stories like that really tug at me. This was more of an informative look, but nonetheless was really fun to read.

A win in my eyes!

I got this book to spite my best friend, not gonna lie, i didn't expect to like it as much as i did! for anyone fascinated by the world of racing, this is a fantastic book that looks into the lives of the horses who live within it. but ultimately, this is a book that peers hard into some of the best horses in all of racing history and compares them to see who truly was the best racer of all time. was it Man O' War? was it Secretariat? i learned a ton of really cool things about a lot of really cool horses, and learned a lot about the history of racing while i was at it! i am not normally one for non-fiction, but I've heard my friend rave about the racing world for so long i knew i had to pick this one up when i saw it on Netgalley, and loved it so much i talked her into pre-ordering it too! 10/10 horse lovers do recommend!

Thank you to Netgalley, The Globe Pequot Publishing Group, Inc, and Eclipse Press for this ARC

This book makes the argument that Man O’War, the original “Big Red,” is perhaps the greatest racehorse in American history, and does so by comparing Man O’War to some of the best racehorses of all time, from Secretariat to Forego to Kelso. It goes over record times, awards, earnings, weight, and even asks if you can still be a great athlete when you didn’t really have anyone at your level to compete with.

Look, this book is biased, and different people will have different opinions on whether or not Secretariat is better than Man O’War, or maybe there’s another racehorse they think is even better. But even with that bias, this book does an excellent job of laying out how the author came to those decisions, and does so in a way that appealed to me.

Chapter by chapter this book is a collection of biographies of these racehorses, covering their wins, their losses, their times and who they raced against. it talks about Allydar and Affirmed covering the careers of both horses fairly. Older and less-known horses like John Henry, the first horse to win $6 million, and Exterminator who, like Man O’War, regularly carried 130 pounds extra are given their due. It’s a fun book for people who are fans of horse racing and racehorses, and worth it just for that.

I appreciate that the author makes it clear that — without facts, actual facts — we can’t answer any of the many “what if” questions of horse racing. What if this horse had been healthy, that horse had blinkers, the track had been better, the jokey more educated. Secretariat vs. Man O’War would be my ultimate what if, but I’m sure I’m not the only one.

It’s well written, conversational and includes pictures of the horses mentioned. The author also contextualizes Man O’War in his time, how gambling bans were shutting down tracks and lowering purses, how fewer people were attending the races until Man O’War and his speed brought them back. They only lightly touch upon something I personally think has an almost equal weight, the fact that when so many humans were proving to be imperfect and flawed — sometimes very flawed — Man O’War was a hero who couldn’t let you down. A jockey, a trainer, sure, but the horse himself was able to be lionized and held up as a symbol, something people coming out of WWI and the Great Depression probably needed.

I enjoyed this book. I sped through it in one sitting and will be buying a physical copy once it comes out. Thank you so very much to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC!