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Lexington

The Extraordinary Life and Turbulent Times of America's Legendary Racehorse

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1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A vivid portrait of America’s greatest stallion, the larger-than-life men who raced and bred him, and the dramatic times in which they lived.”—Geraldine Brooks, author of Horse
The powerful true story of the champion Thoroughbred racehorse who gained international fame in the tumultuous Civil War–era South, and became the most successful sire in American racing history


WINNER OF THE DR. TONY RYAN BOOK AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN THOROUGHBRED RACING LITERATURE

The early days of American horse racing were grueling. Four-mile races, run two or three times in succession, were the norm, rewarding horses who brandished the ideal combination of stamina and speed. The stallion Lexington, named after the city in Kentucky where he was born, possessed these winning qualities, which pioneering Americans prized. 
Lexington shattered the world speed record for a four-mile race, showing a war-torn nation that the extraordinary was possible even in those perilous times. He would continue his winning career until deteriorating eyesight forced his retirement in 1855. But once his groundbreaking achievements as a racehorse ended, his role as a sire began. Horses from his bloodline won more money than the offspring of any other Thoroughbred—an annual success that led Lexington to be named America’s leading sire an unprecedented sixteen times. 
Yet with the Civil War raging, Lexington’s years at a Kentucky stud farm were far from idyllic. Confederate soldiers ran amok, looting freely and kidnapping horses from the top stables. They soon focused on the prized Lexington and his valuable progeny.
Kim Wickens, a lawyer and dressage rider, became fascinated by this legendary horse when she learned that twelve of Thoroughbred racing's thirteen Triple Crown winners descended from Lexington. Wickens spent years meticulously researching the horse and his legacy—and with Lexington, she presents an absorbing, exciting account that transports readers back to the raucous beginning of American horse racing and introduces them to the stallion at its heart.
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    • Library Journal

      February 1, 2023

      The subject of Geraldine Brooks's LJ-starred Horse and progenitor of 12 of 13 Triple Crown winners, racehorse Lexington gets his own life-and-times treatment from former lawyer and dressagist Wickens. Prepub Alert.

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 1, 2023
      In this colorful debut biography, equestrian Wickens relates the life and legacy of the eponymous equine, who was foaled near his namesake city in Kentucky in 1850. Though Lexington’s light frame, paired with a broad chest, wide jawbone and nostrils, and muscular legs, gave him the build of a runner, he spent his early years untrained due to the ill health of his owner, Dr. Elisha Warfield. Eventually, Warfield sold the “resolute” horse to Harry Lewis, a freed Black horse trainer whose skill Wickens credits with putting Kentucky at the top of “the national competition to produce winning horses.” Wickens notes that not only was Lexington the first horse in more than 100 years to break the world speed record, in 1855 (running four miles in just under seven minutes and 20 seconds), but his record as a sire of winning horses remains unrivaled. The book settles into a steady canter as readers are introduced to Civil War Kentucky and its marauding, horse-thieving guerrillas, while the conclusion’s cool-down trot focuses on the afterlife of Lexington’s bones, which were hidden in an attic of the Smithsonian in the 1950s, resurrected for a Timex ad in 1999, and eventually returned to Lexington, Ky., for display in the 2000s. Lovers of both history and horses will take enjoyment from this thoroughly told tale.

    • Kirkus

      June 1, 2023
      Spirited biography of a famed thoroughbred. Wickens, a former attorney and current trainer, explores the life of the steed at the center of Geraldine Brooks' superb novel Horse. Wickens capably covers a considerable amount of historical ground. To start, she sets a context that may not be well known to readers: the 19th-century American mania for horse racing and its "tests of courage, strength, and stamina." The stamina part is key; as the author notes, the longest race today, the Belmont Stakes, is less than half the length of the longest courses of the past. Against this picture stands Lexington, who was born in 1850 and came into the orbit of a wheeler-dealer whose racing syndicate made a sizable fortune--Wickens reckons it as being the equivalent of $1,724,000 today--in just seven races. Lexington was then put out to stud, and there his accomplishments were even more profound. "By 1872," writes the author, "he had been listed as America's leading sire for eleven consecutive years," and many of his hundreds of offspring went on to become champion racers themselves. By the author's reckoning, of the 13 thoroughbreds that have won the Triple Crown, most recently Justify in 2018, 12 of them had Lexington as an ancestor; Man o' War, Seattle Slew, Secretariat, and Seabiscuit were all in his bloodline. Other of Lexington's offspring figured differently in history. George Armstrong Custer rode one into battle at the Little Bighorn, and the Confederate guerrilla leader William Quantrill and his gang stole several from a breeder's barn in Kentucky, where Quantrill met his end. As to Lexington's end, his skeleton wound up in the Smithsonian, where for many years it was hidden in an unvisited attic until finally being restored to public view, then later transferred to the International Museum of the Horse in Lexington, Kentucky. Fans of horse racing and American history alike will enjoy this lively story.

      COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Library Journal

      August 11, 2023

      Lawyer and dressage rider Wickens delivers a book that isn't just a story about a champion horse; it's also a historical examination of how some wealthy Americans bred fast horses in the 1850s and built and popularized racetracks across the country. Throughout, pages are devoted to the role that free and enslaved Black men played in training or riding champions. Lexington was a thoroughbred that won $56,600 ($1.5 million today) in six out of seven races and set a world record--seven minutes and 19 and three-quarters seconds--that held for 20 years for a four-mile race. (The Kentucky Derby, by comparison, is only a mile and a quarter.) Being blind in one eye, with faltering sight in the other, forced Lexington's retirement, and he became a sire. More than 230 of his offspring have since won races, and 12 out of 13 Triple Crown winners are descended from him. The author's love of horses is crystallized in the plethora of passages about the proper care, feeding schedules, training, and rest that horses require. Her extensive, fascinating research also covers what happened after Lexington's 1875 death. VERDICT Readers do not have to be horse lovers to get swept into this captivating look at an unmatched horse and people of the 1850s.--Jill Cox-Cordova

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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