The behind-the-scenes story of horse racing´s greatest trainer, Bob Baffert, the barn he founded, and the endless quest to train another Triple Crown winner.

Sixteen million people watch the Kentucky Derby every year. Nearly as many watch the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. Three fascinating weekends in a three-month span that add up to under seven minutes of racing. 

But what´s really going on behind the scenes and inside the barns? It´s a year-round labor of love in which scores of people—trainers, jockeys, stable hands—and hundreds of horses, work in harmony to create champions. It takes a total team effort to develop a competitive horse, never mind a Triple Crown winner like American Pharoah. 

And few trainers in the history of horse racing, in a century and a half of trying, have created more champions than the sport´s most celebrated trainer, Bob Baffert. In the past ten years, Baffert has had three colts win the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, only to lose at the Belmont. In 2015, he had the first Triple Crown winner in thirty-seven years, American Pharoah. In 2016, his top Derby contender failed to place. Horse racing is notoriously unpredictable, which has always been part of the allure. But seeing how the potential champions are trained and groomed is surprising, illuminating, and even, at times, emotional and moving, as readers learn about the powerful bond between the horses and the stable employees who dedicate their lives to them.

David Israel is a journalist turned television and film producer who made horse racing his successful third career and became the head of the California Horse Racing Board. Together, Israel, Baffert, and the horses themselves will tell the story of a whole season in Baffert´s barn, as readers witness Baffert´s yearly—and endless—quest to create another champion.


From the Hardcover edition.