...IN CASTLETON LYONS/THOROUGHBRED TIMES BOOK AWARD

LEXINGTON, KY — April 2, 2007 — Racing My Father: Growing Up with a Riding Legend by Patrick Smithwick is a finalist for the first Castleton Lyons/Thoroughbred Times Book Award. The winner will be announced Saturday, April 14, at Dr. Tony Ryan’s Castleton Lyons farm in Lexington.

In the critically acclaimed Racing My Father, Patrick Smithwick writes about growing up in the hell-bent-for-leather world of Thoroughbred racing as the son of Hall of Fame steeplechase jockey A.P. “Paddy” Smithwick. Paddy Smithwick was the greatest steeplechase rider in America in the 1950s and ’60s, winning all the big races, leading the country in races won four times, dominating the sport with his style, ability, heart, and gentlemanly demeanor.

Patrick Smithwick also is a natural — a gifted horseman and a gifted writer. Despite witnessing the pinnacle of the sport, the younger Smithwick started his own journey without a leg up. After his father was severely injured in a racing accident, young Patrick helped his father work his way back into racing, and the father-son, trainer-rider duo ended up in the winner’s circle at Saratoga Race Course. After his father’s death, Patrick found refuge — and a new life — in writing.

Patrick Smithwick, who resides in Monkton, Md., near Baltimore, is an award-winning author whose work has appeared in Baltimore magazine and in numerous horse racing, regional, and literary publications.

“Racing My Father jumped right onto my list of best-loved books. It’s a fascinating story by a truly gifted writer.”
— Lucy Acton, editor, Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred

“Patrick Smithwick’s bittersweet memoir wonderfully captures a racetrack culture that he was born to and loved. But he also shows, with such wrenching emotion, how he struggled, in the parlance of his sport, to change leads in his own life. The portrait he draws of his father, Paddy — a man both lovely and tough — is absolutely endearing. We can see it wasn’t easy for the author to be Little Paddy. But it was glorious, too.”
— Frank Deford, author, commentator, and sportswriter

Publication date: May 2006
ISBN: 1-58150-140-4
Pages: 376; Bound Size: 5 1/2” x 8 1/2”
Retail price: $24.95 Hardcover

Available at your local bookstore or from ExclusivelyEquine.com
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