The great match race : when North met South in America's first sports spectacle
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 244-247) and index.

In the early 1800s, the notion of sport was still quite new to America-- that is, until a horse race changed everything. In 1823 an astonishing sixty thousand people gathered on Long Island to watch two thoroughbreds battle it out in three grueling heats, the equivalent of nine Kentucky Derbys, in the space of only a couple of hours. And the whole thing was based on an outrageous dare. In a fast-paced narrative--colorful, rich, and full of record-setting performances and towering personalities--John Eisenberg chronicles the tremendous story of the year in which two horses would come to embody a nation galloping inevitably toward civil war. Eclipse was the majestic champion representing the North"s evolving industrial machine, and Henry was an equine arriviste embodying Southern perceptions of superiority. Their thrilling match race would come to represent a watershed moment in American history, crystallizing the differences that so fundamentally divided North and South.