Now back in print! This book has gone out of print twice, so get your copy before it races off the shelves again.
Winner of the 2019 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, Better Lucky Than Good is the first-ever book documenting the unique and fascinating world of the backstretch of Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, written by the people who work there.
"Every person I know who has ever 'written a horse book,' or worked extensively as a journalist covering the world of the track, has at some point had a version of this thought: If somebody would just do a good oral history, interviewing the people who actually work with the horses—the grooms and riders and ferriers and assistant trainers, the folks on the 'backside'—it would be worth 10,000 pages of even the best literary description of the sport. Now the Louisville Story Program has done this, and done it beautifully. It's no exaggeration to say that this book has needed to exist for 200 years."
- John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Pulphead and Blood Horses
320 pages; 8x9; full color; soft cover
Better Lucky Than Good is also available as an eBook!
Third edition printing made possible by Snowy Owl Foundation. A portion of proceeds benefits the Backside Learning Center at Churchill Downs.