Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America [Paperback]

Charles Leerhsen (Author)

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Product Details

Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (Jun 2 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0743291786
ISBN-13: 978-0743291781
Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 13.9 x 2.3 cm
Shipping Weight: 318 g
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #448,089 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #91 in Books > Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Gambling > Horse Racing

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

In this spirited narrative, Leerhsen, an editor at Sports Illustrated, tells the now-forgotten saga of Dan Patch, a race horse that at one time drew an estimated 60,000 people to a single event in 1903. Admitting from the outset that the events of this book may seem as if they transpired on another planet, Leerhsen delivers a mesmerizing look into a strange corner of American sports and folk history when Dan Patch became a household word, earning roughly $1 million a year at a time when, Leerhsen notes, the-highest paid baseball player, Ty Cobb, was making $12,000. The arc of Dan Patch's career involves a range of often unscrupulous entrepreneurs: his first owner, Dan Messner Jr., who overpays by mistake for an injured pace horse and whose drunken decision to breed the pace horse with a wild stallion results in Dan Patch's birth; the horse's second trainer, Myron McHenry, who despite his conflicts with Messner grooms the horse for success; and M.W. Savage, the horse's final owner, who makes millions from Patch-related merchandise while overworking an obviously tired animal. But the heart of the book is Dan Patch himself, a horse with an almost human capacity for calm and determination that deserves to be rediscovered by a modern audience. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"It's a terrific look at a legendary if now forgotten equine superstar named Dan Patch. Leerhsen does for early 20th-century American harness racing what Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit did for Depression-era Thoroughbred racing." -- USA Today

"One of the many satisfactions of Crazy Good is that it goes farther than Seabiscuit -- Laura Hillenbrand's popular resurrection of another unlikely superstar -- in explaining how a horse could be so feted, then forgotten...With wit and a winking charm, Leerhsen, an executive editor at Sports Illustrated, makes sure this handsome brown stallion resonates...From start to finish, this book has legs." -- Newsweek

"Mr. Leerhsen's thoroughly entertaining history betrays no trace of the sentimentality that so often adheres to tales of bygone sports heroes...[Crazy Good] has the moments of sweetness and triumph that only a sports story can provide. Not least among the triumphs is the fact that, with Mr. Leerhsen's help, Dan Patch at long last has been given his due." -- Wall Street Journal

"Leerhsen vividly recounts Dan-mania and digs up dirt on the colorful gamblers and shady horse handlers of the 1900s. In rescuing Dan from the mists of history, he also draws a wry, moving account of America's first epidemic of sports fever." -- Entertainment Weekly

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com ^(beta)

Amazon.com: 4.3 out of 5 stars (41 customer reviews)

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wacky Rich, May 24 2008

By Dr. Wiffle Q. Tater - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America (Hardcover)

Rich referring to not just Dan Patch's owner, but also to Leerhsen's book, multilayered and full of tasty stuff. Villains and/or complicated characters abound. The one sure hero is Dan Patch, whose history and personality are revealed like a mystery being solved, while Leerhsen schleps us around the early 20th century racing circuit, and we bask in such emerging or time-honored cultural phenomena as mass marketing (often bogus), absurd product endosement, racetrack corruption, gross material excess, the cult of celebrity, and road domination by the motorcar. We meet descendants of some of the important humans in Dan's life and the current day keepers of the Dan Patch flame, including Leerhsen himself, the obsessed lead detective who's loved the track all his life. Besides fascinating, Crazy Good is misty-eyed poignant and laugh-out-loud hilarious, with fabulous writing ranging from sportspage dramatic to erudite to profane. Wacky Rich.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Standardbred Legend Comes To Life, May 19 2008

By Bicycle Day - Published on Amazon.com

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This review is from: Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America (Hardcover)

Talk about a superstar, fans used to say that the legendary natural pacer, Dan Patch, would stop on the track before a race and look to the stands to count the house.

And from where this forgotten legend had come from, that gaze was worth its weight in gold.

Author Charles Leerhsen brings to life the amazing career of this Standardbred racer who set his mark on the track and in sponsorship deals; from chewing tobacco and toys to washing machines and automobiles, there was even an "air-line" named after the stallion.

Born with a crooked-leg in 1896, his original owner thought the Indiana-bred would only have a career in front of a delivery wagon. Not raced until age four, Dan Patch quickly became a sensation on the national Grand Circuit and in exhibition races; his average paced mile in his 73 GC events was under two minutes and he banked more than $2 million in prize money.

But it was September 8, 1906, at the Minnesota State Fair race track, where Dan Patch set an amazing mark before 93,000 fans. He paced a mile in 1:55, a record that stood for 32 years. Dan Patch was retired in 1909 and died in July 1916.

And with the triumph came tragedy and memories of a golden era fading away as years quickly rolled into decades. Dan Patch will again forever stand tall as a titan in sports, as Leerhsen has brought this incredible story back on track.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, Enlightening, Engaging, May 30 2008

By E. Harvey - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America (Hardcover)

Crazy Good is just plain good. Even if the only horses you've ever seen have policemen on them, you will enjoy this story of a superstar who just happened to be a horse.

Dan Patch, the star of this book, is unblemished and brilliant, but the people around him? Maybe not so much. Hence the captivating story.

Leerhsen tells the tale of this unlikely hero, born as he was with no expectations and a physical deformity to boot. He keeps the reader entranced through the emergence of Dan's brilliance and the story of how he draws hundreds of thousands of fans a year. The Beatles had nothing on Dan Patch.

Get this book for Father's Day, for Flag Day. Get it for any time you want to leave the past behind and allow yourself to be pulled in by the magnetism of a horse who lived 100 years ago.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 41 reviews 4.3 out of 5 stars