Sid Gustafson
Novelist and Veterinarian

With the advent of permissible raceday medication in the 70s horseracing in the United States entered the saddest phase of its history. The pharmaceutical-fueled and profit-hungry demise of the sport entered the limelight with Barbaro’s Preakness breakdown, and culminated in the tragic 2008 Kentucky Derby death of Eight Belles, who fractured both front legs in the biggest race in America in front of millions of viewers. Equine Veterinarian, novelist, and journalist Sid Gustafson takes readers onto the backsides of racetracks across America to deliver the firsthand story of the racehorse culture as it evolved from the 60s into the troubled drug culture of the 21st century that resulted in alarming numbers of racetrack breakdowns. He colorfully portrays the vulnerability of horses to pharmaceutical influence to gain competitive advantage and delves into the complex phenomenon of horsemen willing to subjugate horses to potent dangerous drugs for unfair competitive advantage without due consideration for the noble creatures and their riders. In this visionary book Dr Gustafson, a seasoned racetrack practitioner, explains how horseracing came to this low point and delineates the necessary guidelines and equine breeding, husbandry, conditioning, and training practices and principles necessary to restore integrity to the Sport of Kings.