For this first installment of Books of Note for 2023, I went through my to-read pile of books and looked for ones that I knew were recent additions to the world of books about the sport of horse racing. 2022 had its share of new books, which I collected here for America’s Best Racing, and this new one on Spectacular Bid, The Fast Ride: Spectacular Bid and the Undoing of a Sure Thing by Jack Gilden, caught my eye. Familiar with the story of the Bid, I decided to start here.

What Gilden’s take on the story of the Bid adds to the pantheon of work already out on this Hall of Famer is an exploration of the behind-the-scenes drama rather than a rehashing of this great gray’s many celebrated performances, a look at the who and where behind a familiar name and a familiar time in racing.

A native of Maryland, familiar with the locations central to the story of the Bid, Gilden builds his book not on the horses, but on the people and places closest to the horse. Behind the strapping gray Thoroughbred was a cast of real people, from owner Harry Meyerhoff to trainer Grover “Bud” Delp to jockey Ronnie Franklin. The book recreates this moment in the sport, starting with Franklin’s blue-collar background in Dundalk to a recounting of the Mid-Atlantic racing scene in the middle of the 20th century to the backstretch at Belmont Park before what was supposed to the Bid’s crowning moment and more.

For those looking to relive the gray’s storied seasons on the racetrack, this may not be the book for that kind of reminiscing. Gilden’s exploration of Franklin’s and Delp’s lives is less about those triumphant moments and more about what went wrong, what led to Franklin’s meteoric rise and unfortunate fall, and more. Readers will learn more about the history of the sport beyond the horses and the races as the context that Franklin, Delp, and others operated in during this era is rebuilt through Gilden’s exploration. He recounts Dundalk, the social changes within Baltimore, and the factors that influenced how Maryland developed from the post-World War II years onward. This is a book for those who want to understand why things happened, why decisions were made, etc., as much as they want to read about what happened.

In his afterword, Gilden cites those who were not a part of the writing as much as those who were. He spoke to those closest to Franklin, including his nephew Tony; Angel Cordero, Jr, and other jockeys who were part of that time with Franklin and the Bid; Cathy Rosenberger, who worked for Bud Delp; Gerald Delp, the trainer’s son; and Tom and Teresa Meyerhoff, Meyerhoff’s son and second wife, both of whom were a part of the story of that time. But Gilden’s allusion to those who would not talk leaves as much of an impression as those who did, leaving readers to imagine what remains unsaid about this story. That is the thing about writing a book like this: no matter the topic, the author is left wondering what stories, details, and other pieces are hidden from view either by the inevitable obscurity of time and the choice to say no to sharing. Readers may exit a book feeling the same.

The Fast Ride ultimately indeed is a fast ride for the reader as we get to know the Franklins, the Meyerhoffs, Bud Delp, and more with this singular horse’s career as the backdrop. Consequential names and places are dropped, each another piece of the puzzle that traces the changes in Maryland and racing over time. For those who value the sport and its past, for those who want to understand why as much as how, this is a book worth picking up. The gift of history is not simply stirring stories, but the recounting of the past so that we may understand the present, and, hopefully, plot out a future that has learned from who and what came before.