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Not By a Long Shot: A Season at a Hard Luck Horse Track
The great myth of horse racing is that the game is the regal and royal Sport of Kings. It isn't. Not by a long shot.
Anyone who doubts this need look no further than Suffolk Downs, a once-proud racecourse graced in its glory years by boisterous throngs and champions such as Seabiscuit. Now the blue-collar East Boston track is one of many that have fallen on hard times. These days "Sufferin' Downs" is where grizzled Thoroughbreds come to end their careers, hopeful young jockeys aspire against daunting odds to begin them, and diehard fans cheer, curse and gamble on the entire fascinating spectacle. These bit players are not just cogs of a single, struggling horse track. They are the unseen supporting cast for a 15 billion betting industry.
In fifteen years as a racing reporter and press box personality, T.D. Thornton gained access to remote corners of racetrack life off limits to the general public. He got to know the raucously Runyonesque characters and the quirky personalities of the horses; he learned the tricks of the trade from trainers, owners, and jockeys; he witnessed the tragedies and small triumphs of racing lives lived below the radar. One recent season, he finally decided to write it all down.
Not by a Long Shot is a deeply textured portrait of an industry where even the best in the business lose 75 percent of the time.
Anyone who doubts this need look no further than Suffolk Downs, a once-proud racecourse graced in its glory years by boisterous throngs and champions such as Seabiscuit. Now the blue-collar East Boston track is one of many that have fallen on hard times. These days "Sufferin' Downs" is where grizzled Thoroughbreds come to end their careers, hopeful young jockeys aspire against daunting odds to begin them, and diehard fans cheer, curse and gamble on the entire fascinating spectacle. These bit players are not just cogs of a single, struggling horse track. They are the unseen supporting cast for a 15 billion betting industry.
In fifteen years as a racing reporter and press box personality, T.D. Thornton gained access to remote corners of racetrack life off limits to the general public. He got to know the raucously Runyonesque characters and the quirky personalities of the horses; he learned the tricks of the trade from trainers, owners, and jockeys; he witnessed the tragedies and small triumphs of racing lives lived below the radar. One recent season, he finally decided to write it all down.
Not by a Long Shot is a deeply textured portrait of an industry where even the best in the business lose 75 percent of the time.
368 pages, Paperback
First published April 2, 2007
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About the author
T.D. Thornton
5 books6 followersI'm a Boston-based writer who aspires to give a voice to dark, edgy characters lurking far beneath the radar of mainstream media.
Gamblers, grifters, hustlers, prize fighters and racetrackers are among my most appealing characters, and I have a keen interest in writing about “low” subjects with a literary twist.
The research for my most recent book immersed me in the dark art of confidence hustling. “My Adventures with Your Money: George Graham Rice and the Golden Age of the Con Artist” details the flair and showmanship of America’s greatest swindler.
My first book, “Not by a Long Shot—A Season at a Hard-Luck Horse Track,” chronicled a year at a blue-collar racetrack. In 2008 “Long Shot” won the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award and was named a "Highly Recommended" finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award.
My journalism and creative nonfiction have appeared in The New York Times, Boston Globe, Slate, The Daily Beast and McSweeney’s.
Gamblers, grifters, hustlers, prize fighters and racetrackers are among my most appealing characters, and I have a keen interest in writing about “low” subjects with a literary twist.
The research for my most recent book immersed me in the dark art of confidence hustling. “My Adventures with Your Money: George Graham Rice and the Golden Age of the Con Artist” details the flair and showmanship of America’s greatest swindler.
My first book, “Not by a Long Shot—A Season at a Hard-Luck Horse Track,” chronicled a year at a blue-collar racetrack. In 2008 “Long Shot” won the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award and was named a "Highly Recommended" finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award.
My journalism and creative nonfiction have appeared in The New York Times, Boston Globe, Slate, The Daily Beast and McSweeney’s.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 26, 2012
With the fluid ease of a seasoned journalist, Thornton uses the 2000 racing season (January through June) at Boston's Suffolk Downs as the foundation of a condensed history of the track. It is a story about the harsh economics of horseracing told by a track media relations director who must balance candor with diplomacy; affection with logical consequences. In recounting a piece by reporter Steve Myrick about the racetrack suspensions of trainer Bobby Raymond, Thornton notes: “...the story struck a raw nerve with many in the backstretch community simply because it violated the cardinal racetrack rule of keeping the truth out of the public spotlight 'for the good of the game'.... “[It] is based on the strangely insular logic that outsiders can never truly understand what really goes on behind the scenes in day-to-day backstretch life....Like a blinkered racehorse, they are too embedded in their own world to glimpse it clearly, and it is in this vein that racing has always preferred to stomp the messenger rather than expose and eradicate the root causes of its problems.” (p.176-177) Thornton goes on to relate his discomfort with this position. He sees the problems but is not only impotent to effect change, but forced to watch the pretense of reform by politicians and their backers while they haggle and procrastinate. Many have praised NOT BY A LONG SHOT for its “behind the scenes” honesty, but it is this tenuous balance that gives Thornton's story added emotional resonance.
It is a little known fact that the vast majority of thoroughbreds earn their keep at modest tracks like Suffolk Downs. Likewise the track employs a wide swathe of people: 400 track employees, 1600 trainers, jockeys, grooms, hot walkers, and exercise riders, and thousands of suppliers such as drivers, vendors, printers, journalists, and local businesses. These tracks are a gateway for scores of neophytes, and the final stop for many at the end of their careers.
Thornton's narrative encompasses many stories. He demystifies the logic of the claiming race. He tracks the preparations for “Rudy Day,” a welcome-back celebration for former jockey Rudy Baez, who is wheel-chair bound due to an accident during the previous season at Rockingham. He follows the ups and downs of trainer Michael Catalano Jr. who is married to Abigail Fuller (her father Peter Fuller owned Dancer's Image, the winner of the 1968 Kentucky Derby, disqualified in a highly controversial ruling). He recounts the glory days of the track when such equine celebrities as Whirlaway, Seabiscuit, and Cigar raced at Suffolk. He recounts the darker days when race fixing scandals engineered by the infamous Winter Hill gang plagued the track. He follows the career of hardworking Saratoga Ridge, a descendant of Alydar and Riva Ridge. And he relates his father Paul Thornton's connection to Suffolk through a contentious horse named Blackwater.
Suffolk Downs is still a “hard-luck horse track.” The last time the MassCap was run was in 2008 (won by Commentator). No decision on a casino has been made yet. Occasionally, there is a bright spot, revealing the human side that Thornton captures in his book. Stan Grossfeld reported recently that trainer John Botty aided in the rescue of Our Revival, a brood mare who once raced at Suffolk, from auction to a Mexican slaughter-house (BOSTON GLOBE, Sept. 25, 20120). Men like Botty are the unsung heroes of horse-racing.
It is a little known fact that the vast majority of thoroughbreds earn their keep at modest tracks like Suffolk Downs. Likewise the track employs a wide swathe of people: 400 track employees, 1600 trainers, jockeys, grooms, hot walkers, and exercise riders, and thousands of suppliers such as drivers, vendors, printers, journalists, and local businesses. These tracks are a gateway for scores of neophytes, and the final stop for many at the end of their careers.
Thornton's narrative encompasses many stories. He demystifies the logic of the claiming race. He tracks the preparations for “Rudy Day,” a welcome-back celebration for former jockey Rudy Baez, who is wheel-chair bound due to an accident during the previous season at Rockingham. He follows the ups and downs of trainer Michael Catalano Jr. who is married to Abigail Fuller (her father Peter Fuller owned Dancer's Image, the winner of the 1968 Kentucky Derby, disqualified in a highly controversial ruling). He recounts the glory days of the track when such equine celebrities as Whirlaway, Seabiscuit, and Cigar raced at Suffolk. He recounts the darker days when race fixing scandals engineered by the infamous Winter Hill gang plagued the track. He follows the career of hardworking Saratoga Ridge, a descendant of Alydar and Riva Ridge. And he relates his father Paul Thornton's connection to Suffolk through a contentious horse named Blackwater.
Suffolk Downs is still a “hard-luck horse track.” The last time the MassCap was run was in 2008 (won by Commentator). No decision on a casino has been made yet. Occasionally, there is a bright spot, revealing the human side that Thornton captures in his book. Stan Grossfeld reported recently that trainer John Botty aided in the rescue of Our Revival, a brood mare who once raced at Suffolk, from auction to a Mexican slaughter-house (BOSTON GLOBE, Sept. 25, 20120). Men like Botty are the unsung heroes of horse-racing.
December 26, 2023
Having devoted ten years of my life to working at a hard luck horse track, I really appreciated this book.
Mt Pleasant Meadows (aka Mt Pleasant Mudhole) is gone now; just a memory to those of us who knew it well. Most of those memories are still so fresh it doesn't seem so many years have passed. I witnessed great beauty just as I saw things that made me lose faith in humanity. I have a manila envelope tucked away; it holds win pictures and random candid photos, all of my old groom's license ID tags and a list of the registered names of all the horses I fed and groomed and tacked up and cooled out. So my reading experience was unusual; while I was reading the book there was a constant flow of images from the past in my head at the same time.
Reading this book was just like walking into the east end of Barn B back in 1988 and seeing Larry O. sitting there on a metal folding chair, Thermos in hand, the morning sun reflecting off of his crew cut and hearing him say, "Sit down here and we'll drink some coffee, smoke some cigarettes and tell each other lies."
Thank you, T D Thornton for telling the tale.
Mt Pleasant Meadows (aka Mt Pleasant Mudhole) is gone now; just a memory to those of us who knew it well. Most of those memories are still so fresh it doesn't seem so many years have passed. I witnessed great beauty just as I saw things that made me lose faith in humanity. I have a manila envelope tucked away; it holds win pictures and random candid photos, all of my old groom's license ID tags and a list of the registered names of all the horses I fed and groomed and tacked up and cooled out. So my reading experience was unusual; while I was reading the book there was a constant flow of images from the past in my head at the same time.
Reading this book was just like walking into the east end of Barn B back in 1988 and seeing Larry O. sitting there on a metal folding chair, Thermos in hand, the morning sun reflecting off of his crew cut and hearing him say, "Sit down here and we'll drink some coffee, smoke some cigarettes and tell each other lies."
Thank you, T D Thornton for telling the tale.
August 4, 2009
I was in Saratoga last week, and had the itch to delve into my turf library when I got back. I read this book in the spring of 2008 as a judge for the Tony Ryan book award. It won - deservedly. Thornton is a tremendous guide through the demi-monde of the sport of kings. The track here is Suffolk Downs, but it could be one of 50 or 60 small tracks that are the life blood of the industry. He treats the place and its people with tremendous respect and warmth.
August 16, 2021
In Not By a Longshot, author and horse fan T.D. Thornton recounts one of the years (2000) that he worked for Suffolk Downs racetrack in east Boston. During 2000, Sufferin’ Downs was plagued by the decline of horse racing and the expansion of other forms of gambling. Granted, hardcore members of the horsey set might have an entirely different reaction to this one, but I think that this pretty-good book could have been so much better.
Thornton casts a wide net in 350+ pages. Among other topics, he explains horse breeding and racing, regulation of gambling, and he introduces the reader to a good cast of (real) characters. (For me, the people who love horse racing choose to spend their lives around the track are the best part of the story).
But I came away from the book frustrated. Thornton kept a diary during 2000, but didn’t publish the book until 2007. And he had the material for a great book. Unfortunately, Thornton didn’t seem to have a strong sense of where his story was compelling. Toward the end, he also included too many overly-flowery passages in which he tries to explain the track’s appeal.
An editor should have pared the book down to about 250 pages of Thornton’s best material. With some polish, Not By a Long Shot could have been a classic.
Thornton casts a wide net in 350+ pages. Among other topics, he explains horse breeding and racing, regulation of gambling, and he introduces the reader to a good cast of (real) characters. (For me, the people who love horse racing choose to spend their lives around the track are the best part of the story).
But I came away from the book frustrated. Thornton kept a diary during 2000, but didn’t publish the book until 2007. And he had the material for a great book. Unfortunately, Thornton didn’t seem to have a strong sense of where his story was compelling. Toward the end, he also included too many overly-flowery passages in which he tries to explain the track’s appeal.
An editor should have pared the book down to about 250 pages of Thornton’s best material. With some polish, Not By a Long Shot could have been a classic.
July 29, 2025
Even if you know nothing about horse racing, Mr. Thornton's enthusiasm will pull you in for this rambling series of tales told by the ultimate race track insider. "Not By a Long Shot" bookends one year in the operation of Suffolk Downs, a track in Boston, with plenty of history provided by the author, who worked there. This is an unflinching look at the good times and the bad times at one of horse racing's more modest venues. Mr. Thornton knows how to tell a good story.
December 31, 2021
A must-read for any horse racing fan. Thornton is a spectacular tour guide through the history of Suffolk Downs — I’m only sad I never got to visit any of the tracks on the New England circuit before they all closed.
October 29, 2009
As a fan of horse racing, I was eager to read about the history of my home track, Suffolk Downs. Allow me to clarify: the track has loomed large in my life, and I drive by it every day, but I've only been inside on a handful of occasions. It was fascinating to read about the history of racing in this state. A good read for any racing fan or any Mass resident with an interest in our state's gambling history.
May 7, 2012
I enjoyed this book because it gives insight into horse racing away from the glamorous Triple Crown races and Breeders Cup events. The jockeys, trainers and people who bet on races at a small East Boston track, Suffolk Downs, are brought to life by TD Thornton, who worked for the track as a racing reporter. Interesting look at all the different types of folks who come and go, and an in-depth look at the highs and lows of a racing season.
December 19, 2009
A portrait of a season at Suffolk Downs, a struggling second-tier racetrack on the east side of Boston. I enjoyed spending some time with flinty New Englanders, and the competitive balance of claims races fascinates me: you can choose to race against weaker competition, but you run the risk of having your horse bought out from under you.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews