Man O' War

I was already well familiar with the life and racing career of Man o’ War through earlier reading, but Ours’s book brought fresh life to the history of a horse who was legendary beyond all others before he had even retired, yet was a flesh-and-blood animal with his own unique personality and vulnerabilities.

Add this to the tense web of relationships among Man O’ War’s owner, trainer, and jockeys—all complex characters who defied reduction to a sentence or two—and you have a taut, riveting read that held me spellbound right through the bittersweet notes of the final pages.