Description
Within the months leading as much as the 1971 Kentucky Derby, Canonero II used to be an unknown horse with a Venezuelan trainer who spoke only Spanish. The Derby experts” laughed when an exercise boy rode the horse out on the track without a saddle or stirrups. However the laughter promptly ended when Canonero II charged to the front from twenty lengths back to win the Derby, followed by a victory on the Preakness Stakes in track record time. In recounting Canonero II’s quest to change into the first Triple Crown winner since Citation, award-winning turf historian Milt Toby tells the compelling story of how one man’s wildly implausible dream was the dream of a nation and how a bargain-basement yearling born with a crooked front leg was the “people’s horse.”