Three Strides Before the Wire: The Dark and Beautiful World of Horse Racing

by Elizabeth Mitchell

Overview

Now in paperback, reporter Elizabeth Mitchell introduces her readers to the mysterious, mercurial world of horse racing in a book that's as fast-paced and colorful as a day at the track. Focusing on the 1999 Derby winner Charismatic, Mitchell traces this horse's amazing and ultimately tragic story, from the birth of a foal through its surprising rise to fame. Mitchell also follows the major players in Charismatic's life, including the family who bred him, the trainer, the owners, and the famed jockey Chris Antley, whose own story is more tragic than that of his horse. Through these interlocking stories a sense of familiarity with the key players in the industry evolves, as well as a greater understanding of the heart and soul of a sport that has fascinated human beings for centuries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786886227
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	04/16/2003
Edition description:	2002 First Edition
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.19(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Elizabeth Mitchell is the author of W: Revenge of the Bush Dynasty. She was formerly the executive editor of George magazine and features editor of SPIN magazine. She lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

1	Dream Trip	1
2	Dark Horse	9
3	Bug Boy	46
4	Lucky Fellow	73
5	The Ant	98
6	Morning Glory	128
7	The Hotbox	158
8	The Big Gamble	187
9	Kentucky Derby	197
10	The Devil's Picture Books	221
11	The Preakness	239
12	Handicapping	258
13	The Belmont	275
14	The Longest Odds	302
15	Falling Off	318
16	The Wire	346
	Endnotes	367
	Index	389

What People are Saying About This

Barry Hannah

“[One of the heroes of this book] was a classy friend of mine. He sent me flowers on the day he died. How could Ms. Mitchell have survived her grief without him and written this precise and lyrical book about horses and humans? It is a wonder, a testament to the work of an angel on her shoulder.
— Author of Airships and Yonder Stands Your Orphan

Norman Mailer

I did not know much about horse racing until I read Three Strides Before the Wire. Now, I’ve learned a good bit about the front and the back of the sport, and had all the pleasure en route of reading a novel and well-written book.

Sam Lipsyte

If Chris Antley was the perfect rider for Charismatic, Elizabeth Mitchell is the perfect teller of this sad and thrilling story. You won’t find cheap redemption in these pages, or hackneyed life lessons from the track. This is a passionate, sometimes scary book about living and dying and loving and the odds against us doing any of them the way we thought we would.
— Author of The Subject Steve

Phillip Lopate

Mitchell has done a superb job reporting, giving us wonderfully privileged glimpses of a closed world. Adorned by a lucid, elegantly spare, nuanced prose style, this book conveys the romance and harsh pathos of the sport of kings, even to non-enthusiasts.

Nugent

Elizabeth Mitchell takes us on an unblinkered ride through horse country and comes out a winner. Three Strides Before the Wire trails the champion Charismatic from long shot to roses, and, along the way, details a sport driven by varying measures of dreams and disappointment, love found and love lost. It’s a world of deep shadows and odd, often disturbing echoes, where the only sure bet involves the heart. Don’t go to the track without reading this book.
— Author of Drums Along the Congo

Editorial Reviews

In Three Strides Before the Wire, journalist Liz Mitchell traces the pursuit of horse racing's Triple Crown by Charismatic and his trouble-ridden jockey Chris Antley. The story, though, is not just a stirring narrative of two underdogs triumphing. Indeed, this rags-to-riches saga goes sour before the end. Instead, Mitchell has slyly smuggled an exposé of the $7 billion-a-year horseracing business into a riveting racetrack story. That she intertwines these narratives so seamlessly is a testament to her artistry.

bn.com

a superb job reporting, . . . wonderfully privileged glimpses of a closed world . . . conveys the romance and harsh pathos of the sport.

Phillip Lopate

This eloquently written and well-researched book by Mitchell . . . will be welcomed by racing fans and horse lovers.

Library Journal

I didn't know about horse racing until I read Three Strides Before the Wire ... well-written book.

Norman Mailer

. . . the jockey's story is the most interesting and dramatic... Mitchell also fills in, gracefully I think, her own heartbreak . . .
—Los Angeles Book Review

Jane Smiley

A contributing editor at Newsweek and author of W: Revenge of the Bush Dynasty, Mitchell was drawn into the sport of horse racing by chance. In 1999, Mitchell and her boyfriend, Chuck, then undergoing treatment for leukemia, made a spontaneous trip to the Kentucky Derby. Basing her wager on a portentous dream, Mitchell picked the winning horse, Charismatic, a 20-1 long shot, and thus began her research into Charismatic's story. Almost given up on by his owners and trainers, Charismatic wasn't the only surprise victor that year; his jockey and trainer were also amazing comeback stories. A shy and quiet kid who set several racing records while still a teenager, jockey Chris Antley didn't handle success well. Drugs and depression seemed to have taken their final toll when Antley, who had grown over an inch in a bizarre, late growth spurt, was saddled with an extra 15 pounds (jockeys must maintain strict, low weight to ride). Charismatic's trainer, D. Wayne Lukas, was a champion trainer whose reputation was losing ground to younger trainers. Mitchell weaves these struggles (as well as that of her stricken boyfriend) into a story that raises the question of the importance of luck, fate, work and genetics in the lives of man and beast. Mitchell's easy tone is backed by meticulous research, including original author interviews. Though the stories are often exceedingly poignant, Mitchell is never cloying; this beautiful book makes a distinct contribution to a singularly American sport and culture.

Forecast: Published roughly a year after Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling Seabiscuit, Mitchell's effort proves that, in the right hands, horse racing carries stories with incredible mass appeal.

Publishers Weekly

Three Strides Before the Wire remains a strong contender with Seabiscuit down the backstretch.

Tom Wolfe

Mitchell's book possesses an appeal that extends well beyond its subject.

Booklist

From Mitchell (W: Revenge of the Bush Dynasty, not reviewed), the story of the thoroughbred Charismatic and the decidedly troubling story of his jockey. The passion for horses is an old one-even if we have been channeling more of that pleasure of late into automobiles-and those that beat the long odds at racing have a special aura. Such is the case with Charismatic. Despite being a grandson of Secretariat, the horse's performances were spotty if bright. Not so with jockey Chris Antley, who took his craft by storm, a cocky and gifted rider who burned along at a 20% victory rate when other top jocks were humming at 7%. But Antley had a problem-two, in fact: He liked drugs and couldn't keep a handle on his weight. The horse and the man became comeback darlings-Antley over his drugs, Charismatic over his unpromising start-and Mitchell twines the relationship into a smooth braid one can't help cheering on. That the author draws intelligent portraits of other principals-D. Wayne Lukas, the trainer, and Bob Lewis, the owner, plus others of the small handful of Antley friends-adds immeasurably. If Mitchell occasionally loses her focus and windily takes on too much history of the sport or its sidelines of gambling and media play, readers can expect her to get pretty quickly back to the main event. Which is simply that Charismatic, Antley up, went on to win the Kentucky Derby, and then the Preakness, before barely missing the Triple Crown at Belmont. Genuinely touching material about Charismatic's breaking a leg is matched by a parallel story of the dwindling health of Mitchell's lover, who is fighting leukemia, though both tales are overwhelmed by that of Antley's decline and subsequent awful death after theBelmont loss. A good blend of spirit and woe that would have benefited from less of the extraneous for both-spirit and woe-to shine more vividly.

Kirkus Reviews