Secretariat: Thoroughbred Legends

Tim Capps has written several of the Thoroughbred Legends books and my thoughts on his previous efforts (Spectacular Bid and Affirmed/Alydar) were that he really didn't make any effort in writing them. It just seemed like he went through magazine and newspaper articles and came up with a 175 page summary (which was well-written, but seemed empty). When I saw that he was to write the Legends bio of my equine hero, Secretariat, I was apprehensive at the prospect, especially since two outstanding books (by Raymond Woolf and Bill Nack) had already been written about Big Red.But I have to say that Capps did a great job with the limitations of the Legends format. He states right up front that he was apprehensive of doing the project because of the aforementioned books which had been published about Secretariat. But he states that Secretariat was his favorite and he wanted to do him justice. He has. Obviously there is not the detail that is contained in Nack's book or the beautiful photography of Woolf's book, but Capps gives a clear story of each of Secreatiat's races, plus some of the behind the scenes dealings related to his syndication. I didn't learn anything new with Capps' book since I have read everything I could about Secretariat, but this would be a great book for a young horse racing fan who wants to learn about this great horse with the big heart.