Merryland: Two Years in the Life of a Racing Stable
Acclaimed author and third-generation Maryland horseman Josh Pons describes the thrills, triumphs, and setbacks of prepping young Thoroughbred racehorses amid the uncertainties and pressures wrought by encroaching development, casino gambling, and political ennui.
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Josh Pons won two Eclipse Awards for his journalism in BloodHorse magazine, presented for best stories of the year in the sport of Thoroughbred racing. He is the author of three books published by Eclipse Press: Country Life Diary: Three Years in the Life of a Maryland Horse Farm, which sold 10,000 copies, Merryland: Two Years in the Life of a Thoroughbred Training Farm, and Letters from Country Life: Adolphe Pons, Man o' War, and the Founding of Maryland's Oldest Thoroughbred Farm.
Pons joined BloodHorse upon graduation from the University of Virginia, where he majored in English. After three years as a journalist, he entered the University of Kentucky Law School, graduating in 1982, then returned to his family's Country Life Farm.
Professionally, he served as president of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association for six years and is currently president of the foundation responsible for the Maryland Horse Library and Education Center. He and his wife, Ellen, live in Fallston, Maryland, on Country Life, the oldest Thoroughbred farm in the state, together with an extended Pons family of all ages.
Pons has bared a healthy portion of his heart and head, body and soul, all in celebration of his family, their land, and the peculiar animal that has tied them together through the generations. Pons is blessed with the ability to apply those ingredients to paper, and to leave a piece of himself lying open on the page.
Merryland Farm, one of Maryland's oldest and loveliest Thoroughbred establishments, has returned to life under the ownership of brothers Josh and Mike Pons. And Josh Pons, with his lyrical prose and down-to-earth observations, tells the story like no one else could.
Josh Pons, the Samuel Pepys of American Thoroughbred writers, has once again fashioned among the most readable, entertaining, and gracefully written books in the canon of modern Turf literature. A true supplement to his original Country Life Diary, this volume traces further the horseman's life in the historic, rolling Maryland countryside north of Baltimore. Merryland is a day-by-day chronicle enriched with local color, telling anecdotes, and prose that comes alive with wisdom, insight, and even love. For anybody who cares for this game, this is a wonderful read.
