Menu

Available Spring 2018

About the Author

Peter Lee has been a horse racing fan ever since the age of 9, when he saw Seattle Slew win the Triple Crown in 1977. A healthy dose of Walter Farley books (The Black Stallion) fueled his interest, and he has followed horse racing ever since. He is the owner and operator of thewaytochurchilldowns.com, a news blog that chronicles horses’ performances from two-year-olds to the Kentucky Derby. He is also a regular contributor to horseracingnation.com.

The Cast of Characters

Spectacular Bid

A horse with a modest pedigree, sold for $37,000 to a Maryland family. He had won 2 of the 3 races in the Triple Crown, but horrible luck cost him the Belmont Stakes. He went on to win 26 of 30 races.

Bud Delp

A gregarious, small-time trainer at the Maryland race tracks who was given the unimpressive horse to train and quickly came to realize that he had the horse of a lifetime. He was brash, cocky, and distrustful of the Kentucky establishment.

Ron Franklin

The jockey, nineteen-year-old Ron Franklin from Dundalk, Maryland, had been riding horses for only three years and was an apprentice when he started riding Spectacular Bid. Fame, coupled with criticism of the way he rode Bid, hit him hard—he suffered from drug problems for most of his career, and his jockey’s license was eventually taken away from him permanently.

Latest Posts

Ron Franklin, 1959-2018
By peege43   Mar 10, 2018
Ron Franklin died this week, and the world didn't notice. The former jockey of Spectacular Bid, one of the greatest horses who ever lived, was 58 years old, the victim of lung cancer. At the time of his death, he was still serving a suspension by the Maryland Racing Commission for various incidents involving cocaine. But 39 years ago, at the tender age of 19, he was on top of the horse racing world, having won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes on board Bid. (more…)

Ah, the thrill of self-publishing.
By peege43   Feb 26, 2018
I've decided to self-publish Spectacular Bid: The Last Superhorse of the Twentieth Century after several agents told me horse racing books were not popular right now. I felt like the Beatles being told by Decca that boy bands were not in vogue anymore. (more…)

What People Are Saying

© 2018 Peter Lee. All Rights Reserved.

Design by SKT Themes.