The Great Match Race: When North Met South in America's First Sports Spectacle

The Great Match Race is a captivating account of America's first sports spectacle, a horse race that pitted North against South in three grueling heats. On a bright afternoon in May 1823, an unprecedented sixty thousand people showed up to watch two horses run the equivalent of nine Kentucky Derbys in a few hours' time. Eclipse was the majestic champion representing the North, and Henry, an equine arriviste, was the pride of the South. Their match race would come to represent a watershed moment in American history, crystallizing the differences that so fundamentally divided the country. The renowned sportswriter John Eisenberg captures all the pulse-pounding drama and behind-the-scenes tensions in a page-turning mix of history, horse racing, and pure entertainment.

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"Eisenberg tells the stories of the two great horses and their human connection with a novelist's dramatic flair..." Booklist, ALA, Starred Review

"Eisenberg succeeds in creating a gripping yarn of sporting contest..." Publishers Weekly

"...surely the most entertaining book of sports history ever written...It's a grand and glorious story..." -- Frank Deford

"Now the definitive account of a stupendous event that was a preview of modern American sports..." -- Ed Hotaling, author of Wink, The Great Black Jockeys, and They're Off! Horse Racing at Saratoga

"An extraordinary account of America's first major sports spectacle..." -- Joe Hirsch, Daily Racing Form

"Eisenberg's masterfully woven narrative...is as important today as it was two centuries ago." Mim Eichler-Rivas, author of Beautiful Jim Key: The Lost History of a Horse and a Man Who Changed the World

Eisenberg’s melding of history and sports journalism is altogether superb.

Kirkus Reviews, Starred
"Let's get right to the point: This is a lead-pipe cinch, mortal lock, lay-your money-down sure thing of a book." The Baltimore Sun
"Eisenberg expertly captures the passions in his telling of the contest. . .the pages flip by faster than jockey colors." The Chicago Tribune