Search results for ""Author James C. Nicholson""

A quarter of a million people braved miserable conditions at Epsom Downs on June 2, 1954, to see the 175th running of the prestigious Derby Stakes. Queen Elizabeth II and Sir Winston Churchill were in attendance, along with thousands of Britons who were all convinced of the unfailing superiority of English bloodstock and eager to see a British colt take the victory. They were shocked when a Kentucky-born chestnut named Never Say Die galloped to a two-length triumph at odds of 33-1, winning Britain's greatest race and beginning an important shift in the world of Thoroughbred racing. Never Say Die traces the history of this extraordinary colt, beginning with his foaling in Lexington, Kentucky, when a shot of bourbon whiskey revived him and earned him his name. Author James C. Nicholson also tells the stories of the influential individuals brought together by the horse and his victory - from the heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune to the Aga Khan. Most fascinating is the tale of Mona Best of Liverpool, England, whose well-placed bet on the long-shot Derby contender allowed her to open the Casbah Coffee Club. There, her son met musicians John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison and later joined their band.Featuring a foreword by the original drummer for the Beatles, Pete Best, this remarkable book reveals how an underdog's surprise victory played a part in the formation of the most successful and influential rock band in history and made the Bluegrass region of Kentucky the center of the international Thoroughbred industry.

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On October 20, 1923, at Belmont Park in New York, Kentucky Derby champion Zev toed the starting line alongside Epsom Derby winner Papyrus, the top colt from England, to compete for a $100,000 purse. Years of Progressive reform efforts had nearly eliminated horseracing in the United States only a decade earlier. But for weeks leading up to the match race that would be officially dubbed the "International," American journalists provided unprecedented exposure for the sport. The widespread buzz surrounding the race helped lay groundwork for the sport's national proliferation in the years that followed and reaffirmed New York's status as the epicenter of American racing a decade after the sport's return from a two-year shutdown there. Framing the match race between two prominent countries also raised the stakes and put Americans in the position of embracing a new nation, one that would become a global superpower following World War I.In Racing for America, author James C. Nicholson argues that the Zev-Papyrus match served as an important starting point for a progression of international events, including the Empire City Gold Cup, the Washington DC International Stakes, and the Arlington Million, that eventually culminated in the creation of the Breeders Cup World Championships - the annual apex of American racing. Nicholson discusses how syndicated sports columnists shared news, analysis, gossip, and profiles of the equine contestants and the people associated with them, including Zev's owner, oil tycoon Harry F. Sinclair, curmudgeonly trainer Sam Hildreth, and budding celebrity jockey Earl Sande. The American press also played up the rags-to-riches angle in stories about Papyrus's team, creating interest in, and sympathy for, the English team. Those tales of upward social mobility also homed in on American mythological space, muddying the waters as to which horse better reflected what Americans collectively wanted to see in themselves. An American Triumph narrates the rise of an international racing circuit and community, the imperiled status of American racing, the rise of big-time celebrity culture surrounding sports, the glamor and corruption of American politics and resurgent big business, and the popularization of eugenics.Though the International Race was one of the biggest sporting events of the era, no one associated with Zev or the "Race of the Century" would earn a lasting place in American popular memory among other athletic heroes in the golden age of sports, including Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Bill Tilden, and Walter Hagen. Racing for America remembers the blockbuster event, arguing not only that the match brought American horseracing to a place of cultural prominence that it had not achieved in decades, but that the "International," illustrates Americans' hunger for tangible evidence of their nation's strength in the aftermath of the First World War, as well as the central role of politics, money, and ballyhoo in the growth of commercialized sports in Jazz Age America.

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