1,000 to 1!: Claiming, Breeding and Racing Thoroughbreds on a Shoestring-and Beating the Odds. Questo articolo non è disponibile.1,000 to 1!: Claiming, Breeding and Racing Thoroughbreds on a Shoestring-and Beating the Odds

"1,000 to 1" is an anecdotal story about the varied people--from a cabinet officer to a bell captain--who have owned inexpensive horses with the Hampshire partnerships, the people who have trained and cared for the horses, and the horses themselves. This is not a "how to" book since, during our 17 years in the business, despite business plans and racing plans and breeding plans, and, you name it, any other plans, the dynamics constantly changed, and we changed with them. Racing and breeding thoroughbreds always seem to us to be a seat of the pants enterprise, with change being a constant. It is a story about how to spin a $2,500 share into a two-year ownership involving three, four, and sometimes five cheap race horses who, somehow or other, managed to reach the winner's circle a phenomenal 20% of the time over a 17-year period, some years twice that often. It is a story of how a group of novices stumbled into breeding thoroughbreds successfully, accomplishing the near impossible--that is, seeing all the foals they sent to the races wind up in the winner's circle! It is also a story of blind faith, faith in our trainers, in our animals, and in our jockeys who give their best for our entertainment in what can be, and often is, the world's most dangerous sport.

For 25 years, directly out of high school in England, Malcolm Barr pursued a successful career in journalism in three countries, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. This reporting odyssey ended in Washington, D.C., where he was transferred by The Associated Press from Honolulu and where he worked as a criminal justice correspondent until 1969. Barr also freelanced many magazine and newspaper articles in several countries during his journalism career. Quitting journalism for the political scene--the U.S. Senate--and government, where he worked as a public relations manager for the departments of Labor, Justice and Commerce, Barr spent a quarter century in a second career in Washington. While at the U.S. Department of Justice, Barr headed the team that led to the launching of McGruff, the familiar anti-crime icon, and wrote the original support materials for the McGruff program. He supervised the contest that named the dog, introducing the New Orleans police officer who named him at a National Press Club ceremony in 1980. A popular feature of the Hampshire racing partnerships is the monthly newsletter that Barr has written and edited for partners for the past 17 years. Barr is retired and lives in Front Royal, Va. Tom Ardies, a former newspaperman with the Vancouver (Canada) Sun and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, is a successful novelist living in San Diego, CA.