From The Desert To The Derby: Inside the Ruling Family of Dubai's Billion-Dollar Quest to Win America's Greatest Horse Race Hardcover – March 28, 2002

Gives a nice point of view on Dubai horse industry.

I purchased this book with the intention of learning the thoughts, procedures and techniques of the Godolphin Stables of Dubai while persuing a Derby win. The amount of information on these subjects could have been put on one page. Instead there was page after page of race results, the history of horse racing in general and famous race courses in particular, quotes and conversations with trainers, plus I picked up on a definite anit-Royal Family attitude. Also, the contents of the book has no continuity and seem to be just a collection of facts and records. I think think the title is very misleading and did not finish the book.

Jason Levin, From the Desert to the Derby (DRF Press, 2002)In Steve Crist's autobiography, he talks about DRF Press, and how he wanted to get serious about publishing books with it after he took over at the Daily Racing Form. Well, he's certainly gotten serious; DRF Press has not only stepped up publishing books on handicapping and betting the horses (look for my sure-to-be-overenthusiastic review of Steve Klein's The Power of Early Speed early in 2006), but also taking chances on books aimed at a more general audience-- for example, From the Desert to the Derby.As the title implies to any horseplayer, From the Desert to the Derby focuses on the Maktoum family, whose royal brothers Maktoum, Mohammed, and Hamdan have been making waves in the Thoroughbred industry since the early eighties. In the mid-nineties, the brothers got together and formed Godolphin Racing, and one of the prizes on which they've focused their eyes is the Kentucky Derby. As of Levin's writing, they had yet to win one. (For that matter, as of this review, the streak still holds.) One would expect, given these two thoughts and the title, that the focus would therefore be on the Maktoums' quest to win the Kentucky Derby.That's one focus, but not the only one. In fact, the Derby quest takes, in the latter half of the book, second stage to the obvious focus any writer would have been looking to zero in on at the time this book was written-- Godolphin's all-out assault on the 2001 Breeders' Cup, held in Elmont, New York only six weeks after the bombing of the World Trade Center. (The two tie in thanks to a fortuitous late-nineties comment by Sheikh Mohammed that Godolphin would win the Kentucky Derby by 2002; Levin's focus on Godolphin's two-year-old 2001 string follows naturally.)To say the least, this book was not written with the seasoned horseplayer in mind; Levin takes time to veer off into anecdotes well known to every horseplayer over the age of twelve, but that would be unknown to the general public. Thus, we can deduce that the book was, in fact, aimed at the general public, rather than the specialist horseplayer. Quite a radical title for DRF Press to publish in the old days, but an interesting statement by the new guard.So, does it succeed? I think it does. Levin has crafted a book that, while it trips over its feet sometimes (some of those diversions mentioned in the last paragraph do tend to kill the pace instead of building suspense), would make a very good introduction to the world of racing for the non-horseplayer. Like Auerbach's Wild Ride or Barich's Laughing in the Hills, From the Desert to the Derby presents horse racing from a human, rather than an equine, angle, staying away from jargon and easing the reader into an understanding of the sport. Quite nicely done, this, and worth your time. *** ½

The subject of the rise of Godolphin and their attempt to win the Kentucky Derby could have made a fascinating book. The acquisition of racing and breeding stock, the construction of Nad Al Sheba and training facilities in Dubai, the successful strategy of winning the Epsom Derby, the personalities of the human and equine characters all could have been woven into a marvelous book--but that is not THIS book.Actual information about Godolphin is scant; I've read more in single articles.Most of the book is padded with standard information found in most introductions to Thoroughbred racing. This introductory material goes on and on, and finally, one realizes that the writer had nothing else to fill out the pages.This would be tiresome enough, but for the book is loaded with errors, such as stating that Diomed, who had enormous influence on the bloodlines of American Thoroughbreds for decades, was a descendant of Eclipse. He was not. He was a descendant of Herod.The author also waxed enthusiastic about a 20th century horse being descended from Eclipse in the sire line and Matchem in the dam line, as combining foundation lines was unusual; in fact each and every modern TB carries tens of thousands of crosses of the male foundation stallions and some others not known so widely who failed to establish a male line. This reveals an astonishing lack of understanding of the background of the TB; what makes it worse is that it was wrong: the sire descended from Northern Dancer and the dam from Sir Ivor, both descending from Eclipse through Nearco, foaled in 1935.After finding such silliness (didn't anyone at DRF read this before printing it???) one cannot trust any information on these pages.Avoid. Even the photos are lousy. I would have given this negative ratings if possible.

Good but slightly out of date.