A Dead-Game Sport

Dayton Shannon had made two promises. One was too protect his little brother and the other was to earn enough money to get to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. Both seemed unattainable when his abusive father arbitrarily shipped him off to his uncle in Lexington, Kentucky to learn the horse trade. He soon discovered the horse trade was in fact bookmaking and he needed a sheet writer. He was a quick study and soon caught the eye of a famous Kentucky plunger who offered him a job as a commissioner. It wasn't long before he was rubbing elbows with the rich and famous at Coney Island where the difference between being rich and desperately poor was decided by a field of horses. Here he witnessed some of horse racing’s most celebrated clashes, both human and equine and in the process learned the value of money, honor and friendship.

Based on the lives of Charles Riley Grannan and George “Pittsburgh Phil” Smith.
Proofed August 2014