Crazy Good (2008)

The first superstar of 20th-century sports was a horse: Dan Patch had the bloodlines, talent, and temperament to break most of the era's records. But what made him the ''national pet'' was the savvy salesmanship of owner M.W. Savage, who created the prototypical sports-merchandising empire. (Get your Dan Patch pocket watch!) Sports Illustrated executive editor Charles Leerhsen vividly recounts Dan-mania and digs up dirt on the colorful gamblers and shady horse handlers of the 1900s in Crazy Good. In rescuing Dan from the mists of history, he also draws a wry, moving account of America's first epidemic of sports fever. A-