Join award winning author Andy Plattner in discussion of his newest release “Stymie” – a novel that faithully follows Stymie’s unlikely career. A castoff as a younger racer because of his vicious temperament, Stymie endured challenging campaigns to become a beloved horse in New York, where he raced for most of his career. Stymie’s modest beginnings eventually earned him the nickname, “The People’s Horse,” and the 1945 U.S. Champion Handicap Horse and Hall of Famer’s lecacy and record have stood the test of time.

 

The stories in Stymie highlight his early races and his legendary battles with other equine stars of the era, including the great Assault. Eventually the horse is retired and, with the book’s protagonist, takes up residence at the fictional Galileo Farm in Kentucky, where their pasts are revisited through unexpected events.

 

Andy Plattner, a native of Lexington, Kentucky, has worked as a horse groom, a farm hand, a racing journalist, and a university professor. His first novel, “Offering from a Rust Belt Jockey,” earned the Mid-Career Novel Prize from Dzanc Books and won the Dr. Tony Ryan Award for best book on Thoroughbred racing. His other award-winning titles include “Winter Money,” Tower,” and “Dixie Luck.”