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BASED ON THE TRUE STORY OF HORSE RACING'S MOST FAMOUS NAME
A debut novel by Paul C. Bastante
COMING NOVEMBER 27, 2026!
A FARM. A COLT. A LEGEND!
In 1831, a young cadet’s world changes with the death of his father. What follows is a journey from the mills of Connecticut to a horse farm in New Jersey to Lexington, Kentucky — where a colt is born who will one day lend his name to one of the most famous races in American sports. This is the story behind the name Preakness.
The story itself spans over 50 years and traverses four countries as the tale of love and tragedy is put through its paces.
THE REAL PREAKNESS
Preakness the horse was born in 1867 in Lexington, Kentucky and raised at Preakness Farms in Wayne, New Jersey, and owned by Milton Holbrook Sanford. In 1870, he won the first race ever run at the newly opened Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. Four years later, in 1874, the track named a new stakes race in his honor — the Preakness Stakes, now the middle jewel of the Triple Crown.
Preakness was born in Lexington Kentucky out of the champion colt, Lexington and the Mare Bay Leaf, and while Bay Leaf's biggest claim to fame is bearing Preakness, Lexington was a truer champion than perhaps there ever was.
For those on hand when the chestnut-colored colt was born he was a site to behold. His shoulder pronounced like Lexington and his featured seemed chiseled out of granite. What they could NOT see on that day was just how much of a handful he would be.
He could not be ridden by just anyone. If he didn't like his rider he would throw him off of his back. Jockeys quit by the dozen before they found just the right jockey. But it was a little girl named Annie Dotterweich that could truly tame the beast.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paul C. Bastante is a New Jersey writer and filmmaker. Preakness is his first novel, growing out of research from his 2018 documentary film Hills & Valleys, about the history of Wayne, New Jersey.
"From the moment that I learned about the story of Preakness I knew that I would write this book. So many take for granted the name of things in our culture and our society."
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