The Great Match Race

The Great Match Race is a captivating account of America''s first sports spectacle a horse race that pitted North against South in three grueling heats. On a bright afternoon in May 1823 an unprecedented sixty thousand people showed up to watch two horses run the equivalent of nine Kentucky Derbys in a few hours'' time. Eclipse was the majestic champion representing the North and Henry an equine arriviste was the pride of the South. Their match race would come to represent a watershed moment in American history crystallizing the differences that so fundamentally divided the country. The renowned sportswriter John Eisenberg captures all the pulse-pounding drama and behind-the-scenes tensions in a page-turning mix of history horse racing and pure entertainment.