Half a century ago, a pint-sized horse, Northern Dancer, captured the heart of this country and became a symbol of national pride. Kevin Chong transports us back to that time in his thoroughly researched Northern Dancer: The Legendary Horse that Inspired a Nation.
Chong vividly details the exploits of this undersized horse both on the track and in the stud barn. He also describes the humans who orbited around Northern Dancer, most notably E.P. Taylor, the wealthy owner and the genius behind the breeding program; the trainer, Horatio Luro, a dapper Argentinian playboy; and Bill Hartack, the tiny jockey with a sour disposition.
Chong is at his best in bringing alive the world of the racetrack. It all happened in an era that some of us remember with nostalgia: the first Ford Mustang appeared, the brunette Barbie debuted, and modern new subdivisions were built in many Canadian cities.
As Chong chronicles, Northern Dancer was born in 1961 at Taylor’s National Stud Farm near Oshawa, Ontario. He was not in the classic racing horse mould — at the 1962 yearling sale he was the smallest of the forty-eight horses on offer and went unclaimed. “Who wants a midget?” commented one purchaser.
But Northern Dancer’s personality hinted at what was to come. He was “notoriously surly and full of himself … the opposite of an ‘easy keeper,’” writes Chong. From his early days he considered himself the stallion of the herd, the boss; and he carried this attitude into his races. In 1964, Northern Dancer established himself as Canada’s greatest racehorse by winning the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, the first two legs of America’s triple crown. He also won the Queen’s Plate, Canada’s top race. At Belmont, the final leg of the U.S. triple crown, he came third — to a nation’s grief.
Chong immerses readers in the strategy, planning, and, often, conflict that was part of each race. He excels at describing the jockey working his horse, the roar of the crowd, and the intense atmosphere of a big race. In his two years of racing, Northern Dancer won fourteen of his eighteen races and never finished worse than third. In 1964, he was named Canada’s outstanding sports star.
We all love to cheer for the underdog, and Northern Dancer’s exploits are comparable to those of Wayne Gretzky, who became a hockey prodigy, even though he seemed undersized, even skinny, beside the behemoths surrounding him.
Although a few horses, such as Secretariat and Man o’ War, may have surpassed Northern Dancer’s racing record, there is one area in which he is unequalled: his astonishing stud performance. In spite of his diminutive size — mares had to stand in a trench so Northern Dancer could mount them — he produced 635 foals, of which 467 were winners. In the 2011 Kentucky Derby, eighteen of the nineteen horses were his descendants. Today, about three quarters of the thoroughbreds around the globe carry the Northern Dancer bloodline. What a horse!
Kevin Chong was born in Hong Kong but now lives in Vancouver and teaches writing at the University of British Columbia. He owned a stake in a racehorse that plays a role in My Year of the Racehorse, the memoir that was his fourth book. (Northern Dancer is his fifth.)
Although this is a captivating and well-researched book, in places the writing is sloppy and difficult to follow. For example, a staged robbery is referred to as an “apartment” robbery (it should say “apparent”), and another unfortunate passage reads: “After the deportation of the Acadians in 1760, their descendants, interbred with New England stallions, were left….”
The book closes with Chong making a pilgrimage to the great horse’s gravesite. Northern Dancer died on November 16, 1990, at age twenty-nine, a Canadian legend.
— Hans Tammemagi (Read bio)
Hans Tammemagi is a writer and photographer who focuses on environment, travel, and Native culture.