It’s a good story, but the writing is not great. There is no real flow. Sentences seem abrupt and disjointed, which felt jarring and kept me from sinking into the story.
I also did not like the anthropomorphizing by the author, like describing a dream the horse Hap had, and the horse being frightened by the dream, as well as a bunch of other thoughts and feelings he supposedly had. It’s fine, if it works with the plot and writing, but in this case it didn’t. The majority of the book reads like a textbook: factual and detached, so the sudden attempts at a fictional writing style, by describing thoughts and feelings of the horse, just don’t seem to fit, and don’t seem believable.(

Could have some potential. This only qualifies as a first draft.
Although this is only my opinion I believe my point of view is correct.

The author doesn’t seem to have had any idea of what type of book he wanted to write. It jumps around from everything to racing history, the horse’s point of view, and the trainer’s life. None of this works to create a coherent story.

I picked up this book as I liked the sound of the premise. A little horse that faced and beat the odds to become a prize winning racehorse. The first few pages showed promise, but then it was all downhill from there.

This book doesn't know what it wants to be, a kids book, a history lesson, a non fiction book about horse racing, or a social commentary. It jumped from one to the other without rhyme or reason, and ended up failing at them all. At first I thought it just badly needed editing, but by the end I realised that the whole thing should be scrapped and started over with more of an idea of what it wanted to be. The author seems to have just jotted down his rambling thoughts and left it at that.

The author also needs to get his facts straight on horse racing. The horse in the book is ridden around the farm by his owners for several years and runs in the county fair. OK fair enough. The next year he is sold, then he gets broken in (!) and runs in a steeplechase. After that he is going to be set for the Breeders Cup, which is held at the end of the year, and then the Triple Crown, a series for three year olds! Seriously!

The only reason I finished this book is I wanted to see how much worse it could get. It didn't fail me. So, unless there's a major overhaul of this book, do yourselves a favour and steer clear.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.