April 15, 2005
McClelland, who writes a column on horse racing for the "Chicago Reader", took a year off to learn about horse racing and gambling. Though he was introduced to the sport as a young boy by his father the reader can easily see that the author is an outsider trying to fathom the sport's inside secrets. Here he introduces us to all the regulars at Chicago's Hawthorne Race Course and Arlington Park and shows how horse racing can become more than a passion. In fact, it can become an addiction. This book will best be appreciated for its humor and insight even by those who have had little experience at the racetrack. It echoes the hilarious "Thirty Tons a Day "by baseball showman Bill Veeck, who made a glorious but futile attempt to master the world of horseracing. -Paul Kaplan, Lake Villa Dist. Lib., IL
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