RaceLens: Vintage Thoroughbred Racing Images;

Through numerous images, most from the world-famous Keeneland Library and many being published for the first time in book form, Philip Von Borries takes you back in time to meet the great spirits of racing, and the long-forgotten racelensmen who photographed them. This notable set includes foundation master Charles Christian ("C.C.") Cook, fellow 19th-centutry pioneer John Hemment, and moderns George Featherston, Louis Hodges, Sr, Wallace Lowry, Roger McClure, J.C. "Skeets" Meadors, Bert Morgan, Jim Raftery and Bert Clark Thayer. The selection of pictures is impeccable, and the captions just as good. (The captions on C.C. Cook's picture of Man o' War; Eddie Arcaro and Nashua; Secretariat; Roseben; and Twenty Grand are perhaps the best in the book). The chapters on Cook ("The Master"), the lost black reinsmen and trainers of yesteryear ("In the Country of Legends and Giants") and the old American Derby ("America's Race") are the heart and soul of this book. Along the way, you'll get rich looks at Man o' War, Citation, Native Dancer, Nashua, Swaps, Tim Tam, Carry Back, Modesty, War Admiral, Yo Tambien and a galaxy of other stars as you've never seen them. RaceLens also includes shots of long-lost racetracks like Bennington, Brighton Beach, Empire City, Gravesend, Jamaica, Morris Park, Sheepshead Bay and Washington Park (old and new). Part sport and part art, RaceLens is proof paramount that a picture is worth a thousand words. Over ten years in the making, RaceLens is long overdue, and a treasure--an absolute treasure--to behold. Foreword by award-winning turfwriter Bill Mooney.