Description

While attending the Keeneland thoroughbred sales in Kentucky, a senior psychoanalyst reconnects with his youthful fervor for thoroughbred racing. Returning to California, he finds himself with re-awakened dreams but without the financial wherewithal to pursue them. A chance event in his practice leads him to an entrepreneurial veterinary-school dropout who has put together the Gerson Racing Stable, a motley crew of sixty racetrack enthusiasts and Runyonesque characters that buy and sell claiming horses. For $3000, he joins the group and the Gerson horses win their first six races. The team is "Living the Dream," its motto. Mike Mitchell, the trainer, spots and claims a six-year-old grey gelding, Star Over the Bay and Gerson Racing becomes a twenty-five percent owner. Each member now owns a minuscule fraction of a horse whose previous career showed but four wins in thirty-four starts in six different states. An appealing young jockey, Tyler Baze, is added to the mix and a new era begins for all. A Shooting Star takes the reader on the team's roller-coaster ride in major stakes races, the Breeders' Cup Turf Championship and his debut on the international stage. Along the way, the analyst finds his way back to where the story began in Kentucky.