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Title: A Day at the Races: The Education of a Racetracker by Barry Gifford ISBN: 0-87113-195-1 Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press Pub. Date: May, 1988 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)

Rating: 4
Summary: Amusingly cynical (and with Liz Lundberg to boot!)
Comment: Barry Gifford, whose markedly jaundiced eye is probably best known from the book Wild at Heart (made into the David Lynch film of the same name starring Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern), has been a longtime railbird. As all writers with the obsession do, Gifford turned his eye, and his pen, to the sport so many of us love.

When you've read enough books about racing from the fan's point of view, you start recognizing the same patterns over and over again. The backside of any track is full of cagey characters, not necessarily because they're dishonest, but because they're used to harassment from folks outside the industry (INS, DEA, OSHA, various other alphabet-soup organizations). But Gifford, as is usually obvious from his books, is a personable sort, and it seems he was able to get backstretch people talking in ways few other authors have been able to. Of course, I may be partial, as one of the folks he interviewed was Liz Lundberg, than a groomer at Tampa Bay Downs, who was one of the best-respected jocks at my home track, Thistledown, when I first got involved in the game.

If you've read Gifford before, you're aware enough of his style, and no one should need to tell you you're going to adore this book. If you're a racetracker who's used to Bill Murray, Mike Helm, and others of that stripe, you may find Gifford's book more accessible than most.