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In Camden, South Carolina, when Joe Richard's was fourteen years old and living with his father on their ranch called Richard's Arabians, Joe birthed a special horse. His father, Clyde, watched the birthing and let Joe do it all. Clyde gives the young stallion for Joe who names him Firecracker. Joe worked hard with Firecracker over the years training so they could enter the one hundred-mile Tevis Cup race in California near Lake Tahoe. A few years later, when the horse market takes a plunge, Clyde is forced to sell off all of his horses, including Firecracker, to a company in California. This causes a major rift between son and father that does not seem to heal. Joe soon heads off to college and graduates and is hired by MCI as a programmer. Meanwhile, Clyde gets a phone call informing him that the company that bought Firecracker is filing for bankrupsy and they won't be able to make their final payment. Clyde, seeing a chance to patch things up with Joe and bring Firecracker home, jumps in his truck with his horse trailer and drives straight through to California. Approaching the stalls late a night, he finds Firecracker, who has been beaten and is malnourished. The horse looks terrible and Clyde fears the worst. Taking his horse back he heads back home, but has to make a stop to see a veterinarian because he is worried about the Firecracker. The vet informs him that Firecracker probably doesn't have long to live. Hurrying home to his vet, Cindi, Cylde does not realize that she gets a semen sample from Firecracker before he dies and breeds one of her mares with it. Soon, America is born and Cylde gives the young stallion to Joe. This helps with the broken relationship with his father, and Joe takes to training America to race in the Tevis Cup. He only hopes that America shows as much potential as his sire, Firecracker, did.
The Last Race by is a fictional story by Billie Bierer about a young man and his struggle to enter the Tevis Cup, a one-hundred mile endurance race that cover the distance from Lake Tahoe to Auburn in one day over rugged trails in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
I do love a good horse race and storied about horses. Never having owned a horse, and having barely ever ridden them, and to tell the truth, they kind of scare me a little bit because they are so big, I am fascinated by these beautiful creatures. And I always love a good horse race novel. Billie Bierer has created a wonderful little tale about a young man who thinks he wants to get away from the way his was raised, but soon realizes that what he truly loves are horses, not working for a large conglomerate. He also comes to realize that family is more important to him than he realized. The first part of the book slowly builds up to the extremely exciting climax of the big race. Will Joe finally be able to fulfill his dream of riding in the Tevis Cup? Does America have as much potential as Firecracker showed? Will Dennyse be able to complete the race on her mare? As for the big surprise, and there is one, well, you will just have to read the book and find out. Overall, I found The Last Race to be a great read and look forward to more books by Billie Bierer, as this is the second one I have read by her. So, if you are looking for a great horse book, pick up a copy of The Last Race by Billie Bierer. You won't regret it.
I rated this book an 8½ out of 10.
