Thoroughbred Nation

Making America at the Racetrack, 1791-1900

Natalie A. Zacek

• Publisher: LSU Press
• Year: 2024
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9780807183229
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

From the colonial era to the beginning of the twentieth century, horse racing was by far the most popular sport in America. Great numbers of Americans and overseas visitors flocked to the nation's tracks, and others avidly followed the sport in both general-interest newspapers and specialized periodicals. Thoroughbred Nation offers a detailed yet panoramic view of thoroughbred racing in the United States, following the sport from its origins in colonial Virginia and South Carolina to its boom in the Lower Mississippi Valley, and then from its post–Civil War rebirth in New York City and Saratoga Springs to its opulent mythologization of the "Old South" at Louisville's Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. Natalie A. Zacek introduces readers to an unforgettable cast of characters, from "plungers" such as Virginia plantation owner William Ransom Johnson (known as the "Napoleon of the Turf") and Wall Street financier James R. Keene (who would wager a fortune on the outcome of a single competition) to the jockeys, trainers, and grooms, most of whom were African American. While their names are no longer known, their work was essential to the sport. Zacek also details the careers of remarkable, though scarcely remembered, horses, whose achievements made them as famous in their day as more recent equine celebrities such as Seabiscuit or Secretariat. Based upon exhaustive research in print and visual sources from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States, Thoroughbred Nation will be of interest both to those who love the sport of horse racing for its own sake and to those who are fascinated by how this pastime reflects and influences American identities.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• Introduction
• 1. Virginia: Gentility and Decline
• 2. Charleston: The Carnival of the South
• 3. Natchez: Nabobs at Play
• 4. New Orleans: Speed in a City of Leisure
• 5. Saratoga: From Sedate Resort to Racing Mecca
• 6. New York City: Creating a National Turf Elite
• 7. Churchill Downs: The New South’s Old South
• Acknowledgments
• NOTES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX