The Plot Thickens

For those of you keeping score, there are now three new books about Barbaro being offered on Amazon--none of them mine. Two are not actually out yet--Edgar Prado's book, due out April 1 and a book by David M. Letell called Barbaro and Other Inspiring Horses due out April 30. The third is called Once a Derby Winner...by Cathie Katz and seems to be available now.

I have known about Prado's book since about a year ago when I trooped to Florida to interview him, having prearranged the meeting with his agent via telephone. When I got to Florida, I connected with his agent once again and he told me just to call Edgar in the jocks' room at Calder Race Track between races and he would talk to me. Which I did, only to be told by Edgar himself that he couldn't speak to me until he spoke to the Jacksons to make sure I was "legit." "I can't just talk to anybody who says they're writing the authorized book," he told me. "I'll call you back." Which of course he never did, nor would he take any more of my calls.

I found out about a week later that he had signed a deal to write his own book and that he wouldn't be talking to anybody about Barbaro except his co-author, who actually does know a thing or two about racing. John Eisenberg, who is writing Prado's book, has written two previous books on horse racing and has a good reputation as a sports writer. I wish them luck because they are writing their book without the authorization of the Jacksons. I do know that Eisenberg called Gretchen for a quote or two but that is all the contact he has had with them.

The other two books are unknown to me as are their authors. I do not know anything about David Letell or Cathy Katz, other than to know that Katz has written quite a lot of books about nature, specifically beaches in Florida. How you get from beaches to Barbaro remains to be seen (clearly she had enough of a track record with a publisher to make the leap), but I do know that the Jacksons were not involved with these books in any way.

So what does all of this mean? Some might interpret it as "Barbaro overload;" others as the fact that the definitive book on the subject has not yet been written. Either way, no one is pounding down my door to hear the truth even as Barbaro himself appears to still be worth writing about.