Take a Ride You Won't Soon Forget
Equestrian News Release
LEXINGTON, KY — April 26, 2006 — Racing My Father: Growing Up with a Riding Legend is not just another “horse” book. It is a fast-paced, compelling memoir ranking in the stakes race category with Russell Baker’s Growing Up, Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, Annie Dillard’s An American Childhood, and Beryl Markham’s West With the Night.
In Racing My Father, Patrick Smithwick writes about growing up in the hell-bent-for-leather world of Thoroughbred racing as the son of Hall of Fame steeplechase jockey A.P. “Paddy” Smithwick. Paddy Smithwick was a natural. He was a charismatic figure. He was the greatest steeplechase rider in America in the 1950s and ’60s, winning all the big races, leading the country in races won four times, dominating the sport with his style, ability, heart, and gentlemanly demeanor.
Patrick Smithwick also is a natural — a gifted horseman and a gifted writer. Despite witnessing the pinnacle of the sport, the younger Smithwick started his own journey without a leg up. After his father was severely injured in a racing accident, young Patrick helped his father work his way back into racing, and the father-son, trainer-rider duo ended up in the winner’s circle at Saratoga Race Course. Later, when Patrick had to continue without his father, he found refuge — and a new life — in writing.
Patrick Smithwick, who resides in Monkton, Md., near Baltimore, is an award-winning author whose work has appeared in Baltimore magazine and in numerous horse racing, regional, and literary publications.
Advance praise for Racing My Father:
“Patrick Smithwick’s bittersweet memoir wonderfully captures a racetrack culture that he was born to and loved. But he also shows, with such wrenching emotion, how he struggled, in the parlance of his sport, to change leads in his own life. The portrait he draws of his father, Paddy — a man both lovely and tough — is absolutely endearing. We can see it wasn’t easy for the author to be Little Paddy. But it was glorious, too.”
— Frank Deford, author, commentator, and sportswriter
“Patrick Smithwick, a horseman and journalist, writes with real feeling about memories of growing up with his late father, Hall of Fame steeplechase jockey A. Patrick “Paddy” Smithwick. Believe me, this is great reading, whether or not you’re into steeplechase racing.”
— Peter Winants, author of Steeplechasing:
The Complete History of the Sport in North America
“Racing My Father jumped right onto my list of best-loved books. It’s a fascinating story by a truly gifted writer.”
— Lucy Acton, editor, Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred
Reader Comments
Be the first to submit a comment on this article!
Submit your comments
Link to this article
---------------------- It's easy! Just copy code below and paste into your webpage --------------------
<a href="http://www.equestrianmag.com/article/racing-my-father-4-06.html">Take a Ride You Won't Soon Forget</a> ~ EquestrianMag.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your link will appear like this:
Take a Ride You Won't Soon Forget ~ EquestrianMag.com
|
