Diary of a Dream: My Journey in Thoroughbred Racing

By George Rowand

Horse racing has a way of wrapping itself around some people's souls. For George Rowand, that moment came watching Secretariat win the 1973 Preakness. From then on Rowand knew he wanted to be in horse racing. Diary of a Dream chronicles his failures and successes in the sport he loves.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1581501277
• ISBN13: 9781581501278
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Eclipse Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Diary of a Dream

A memoir of the ups and downs of Thoroughbred breeding and ownership. Rowand had a quixotic dream: to breed his own Thoroughbred stakes winners. He went about this by buying yearling fillies, trying to race them, and then, when they didn't do much on the track, breeding them. One essentially unsound filly, bred to a succession of inexpensive stallions, amazingly produced one stakes winner after another. An engaging account, but the concept of breeding on unsound horses, at least one of which could never even make it to the races at all, left me with a sense of lasting discomfort.

For racing fans and racing newcomers

This book is full of the vocabulary and the realities of breeding and racing horses - an intriguing world few of us understand. Rowand gives us a story of success but also of the nature of risk and of perseverance - had he given up in year six then the following decade of against the odds success would not have happened. Want inspiration to follow your dream? Read this book.

The Vicarious Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat

As one who has daydreamed about owning racehorses, I got great vicarious enjoyment from Diary of a Dream. George Rowand is "one of us," a 30-something guy who didn't like his job and didn't have much money, but who had a passion and a dream. He bets everything on getting Bonner Farm off the ground, and through hard work and tenacity he keeps it going through some lean, frustrating years. When his horses start scaling the heights of Grade I racing success, it all seems like just retribution to the racing gods who had punished him for so long. Rowand's style is straightforward, compelling and highly readable. He brings you in on the intricacies of race management, the careful selection of races for a given horse, along with the complexities of dealing with trainers, jockeys, investors and other breeders. He also puts you through the agonies of an owner's race day, the glacial pace of time before the race, the rush of events in the moments before post time and then the insupportable excitement or heartbreak of the race itself. This book will remind you of Jim Squire's Horse of a Different Color and Jane Smiley's A Year at the Races. A fun and educational read.

Diary of a Dream

Diary of a Dream is a well-told story about the toil, tension, and exhilaration of owning and racing thoroughbred horses. Rowand begins his account in 1991 at the grade I Gamely Handicap at Hollywood Park, California, as the beloved Miss Josh, "our girl, the one whose mating we had planned, whose birth we had eagerly awaited, and whose career had been so iffy because of her lousy feet, put her nose on the wire." With humor and candor, he goes on to recount his entire journey in thoroughbred racing which began with the dream--"truly ludicrous" as he admits--of owning champion racehorses. Horse lovers will find much to like about this book. I was caught up in Rowand's precise descriptions of every race, and the implications of every race, which his horses ran. Something else I liked: this is a "we" book. The dream belonged to Rowand; the support of family and friends made it real.