Native Dancer

Thoroughbred Legends #7

by Eva Jolene Boyd

Known as "The Gray Ghost" because of his color and his amazing ability on the racetrack, Native Dancer won all but one of his 22 starts. His lone loss came in the 1953 Kentucky Derby, when he was upset by Dark Star. Native Dancer went on to win the Preakness and Belmont Stakes. But his brilliance was evident even at two, when he won all nine of his starts and was named co-Horse of the Year, an honor not bestowed on a two-year-old horse again until 20 years later, when Secretariat was named Horse of the Year in 1972.

Genres: Horse Racing, Horses

175 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

Reviews

[Jay French · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Native Dancer” was generally a well told story of the great grey racer. As in most of the books in the Thoroughbred Legends series, the story covers the usual suspects, the family history, the story of the owner, breeder, jockey, trainer, the races, retirement, and offspring. This was written a bit more “story-like” than the others I’ve read in the series. The descriptions had more direct quotes, making the story feel more real, although it felt a little more like non-fiction books aimed at adolescents. The author really bogged down on the description of the “family tree”, both ancestors and offspring. The horse names seemed to fly off the pages in those chapters, there were so many. It was an almost biblical stretch of names, missing only the begats. I didn’t find the heavy “name dropping” very interesting, at least until the end when the author mentioned race horses I knew from recent racing. Still, I found this enjoyable, and a better than average volume in the series.

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an very concise guide to Native Dancer's racing and stud career. Boyd doesn't mince words as she shares the key facts and important events that brought Native Dancer to the world of racing and proved him one of the greatest racehorses of all times. She does include some background on his peers, those challengers that he bests in all but one of his races. There are plenty of quotes from his owner, his trainer, his jockey and others in the racing world that saw the "Gray Ghost" firsthand. Although the book races along Native Dancer's timeline, it does manage to pull the reader in and impress upon them just how wonderful this giant horse was; by the time we hit Native Dancer's one loss, I was devestated for him. A quick rundown of his prodigy is included at the end, as well as his family tree and a list of references for citations in the book.

This is a great overview of Native Dancer - his career, his background and his nature. There are a number of black & white photos included in the middle of the book.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid story of the rise of one of America's Favorite racehorses. Easy read, well, easy prose but lots of details about bloodlines, race splits, etc.