The Great Match Race

📖 The Scoop

“A heart-stopping account of a race that surely must rank as one of the most thrilling on record” from the acclaimed author of The League (The New York Times).

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.

“Eisenberg . . . gives fresh legs to the genre.” —Sports Illustrated

“Eisenberg provides fascinating descriptions of the men behind the match, the ramshackle early state of horse racing, and even the personalities of the various horses. Most importantly, he conveys the fierce regional rivalry that divided the country at the track long before it erupted into civil war.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Riveting . . . the pages flip by faster than jockey colors.” —Chicago Tribune

“Eisenberg, informed by exhaustive research, tells the stories of the two great horses and their human connections with a novelist’s dramatic flair (yes, the comparisons to Seabiscuit are inevitable and appropriate).” —Booklist (starred review)

Genre: Sports & Recreation / Animal Sports / Horse Racing (fancy, right?)