Rereading: THE BLACK STALLION CHALLENGED by Walter Farley

Cover art by Ruth Sanderson

For the previous book in his racing horse series, “The Black Stallion and Flame,” Farley brought The Black to the hidden island home of his other stallion, but while the two horses worked together to defeat a common enemy, a bat infected with rabies, their owners were not present and did not meet. Readers may have felt cheated, and in this book, Alec Ramsey, owner of The Black, and Steve Duncan, owner of Flame, not only meet, they race together in Hialeah, Florida.

Alec, The Black, and trainer Henry Dailey are at Hialeah while the horse recovers from a hoof injury that’s kept him from racing for a few months. While there, Alec gets a letter from Steve asking if he could come and meet him to talk about trying to get his horse into racing at the track. Steve explains he and his friend Pitch need to raise $65,000 to buy an island. Readers of the Flame stories know this is the island holding the secret hidden valley where Flame and his band live. The island is owned by the British government, and is apparently for sale, but only Steve and Pitch know the treasures it holds, both in horses and Spanish artifacts, Pitch is exploring the latter.

Steve and Flame are currently in Nassau, the Bahamas, and Alec advises Steve to begin by trying to win a race there. Perhaps that will interest the owners of the Hialeah track. Steve succeeds at that, and gets a trial work-out at Hialeah, which turns into an unplanned race between Flame and The Black that tests both horses and amazes the watching officials. Alec offers advice to Steve, who is cocky and sure of himself and his horse, but Alec explains that there’s a lot to learn about racing beyond having a fast horse. Will Steve listen to Alec? The two horses are entered in a big race, so we’re about to see what happens.

Farley always manages to make these books interesting and exciting with lots of insight and knowledge about horses, racing, and people. Recommended.

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