The inside story of the crisis within the country’s most classic sport—horseracing—and why money is killing thoroughbreds at the top of their game.
The inside story of the crisis within the country’s most classic sport—horseracing—and why money is killing thoroughbreds at the top of their game.
Every year, hundreds of horses die on the racetrack. Why?
In this deeply reported and propulsive narrative, CNN reporter Katie Bo Lillis shows how two high-profile cases lay bare the ills facing the sport: the abrupt, industry-rocking indictments of top trainers Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro, and the untold story of Bob Baffert, the most successful and recognizable horse trainer in modern history, and the allegations he faced after a string of mysterious horse deaths and the high-profile disqualification of his latest Kentucky Derby winner for a failed drug test.
Death of a Racehorse delves deep into the horse racing world, offering intimate access to dozens of top trainers, owners, breeders, veterinarians, lab specialists, and more. The mainstream perception has been that rampant drug use is forcing these horses to run past their natural ability, resulting in heart attacks and broken legs. But this doesn’t paint the full picture.
That picture is driven by class tension between the affluent old stables and an ambitious new guard. This upstairs-downstairs drama shows blue-blooded families on a quest to restore horse racing to the good old days that never existed, versus those like Bob Baffert who are still viewed as outsiders—fantastically successful, but coming from less pedigreed backgrounds and experience. The privileged few, determined to save the sport, seem to hold a powerful suspicion that the sport’s brash, pioneering working class could not possibly be doing so well on their own.
Lillis shows how the breeding industry prioritizes making millions over breeding a sound, durable horse. A disjointed race schedule, created by racetrack operators that are trying to maximize betting opportunities, makes it impossible to manage a horse’s athletic career safely. In this purely capitalistic industry, the brute force of winning and the money that follows has taken the place of a responsible husbandry of the animal that is its beating heart.
Death of a Racehorse is a cutting, on-the-ground investigation into the morally ambiguous behavior at the industry’s glamorous center, raising nuanced questions about the relationship between animal and human—and offering a hopeful path forward for one of America’s oldest and most treasured sports.
"[A] penetrating debut.... a disturbing exposé of horse racing’s dark underbelly." —Publishers Weekly
This informative and compelling read is sure to attract an audience far beyond the first-Saturday-in-May crowd. —Booklist (starred review)
"This is an amazingly insightful, detailed, and convincing book about why the problems with American horseracing are so complicated and difficult to resolve. Maybe the best thing about it is that Katie Bo Lillis has some hope. Now that I've read it, I do, too."—Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Thousand Acres and Lucky
“I was on the edge of my seat. Death of Racehorse is a serious piece of reporting, deeply researched and beautifully told. This isn't just a book about horse racing—it’s a thriller-like read about money and power in America. I learned a lot. A very special thanks to Katie Bo Lillis for writing this terrific book.” —Wolf Blitzer, CNN, The Situation Room
Katie Bo Lillis is a CNN senior reporter covering intelligence and national security. Prior to her role at CNN, she worked for Atlantic Media traveling the Middle East, covering America’s wars. But she was raised in the saddle in rural Virginia, and her first love was thoroughbred horse racing. She now lives on a farmette with a small barn in northern Virginia with her husband and son.
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