Borden Deal

Bluegrass

Doubleday, New York, 1976, 468 pp.

New English Library, 1978, pb, 240 pp, 2 vols (right)

Read a review here.

Set in the world of racing:  apparently includes a lot of accurate
information on bloodlines!  Maude Sage has broken into the closed world
of Kentucky bloodstock, but no one likes her for it, and they are determined
to ruin her by making sure her yearling colt is sold for peanuts in the sale
ring.  Maude buys her own colt, determined to succeed.

Borden Deal (Loyse Youth Deal, 1922-1985) was an American novelist, born in Pontotoc, Mississippi.   He was educated at Macedonia Consolidated High School, and had many different jobs before enrolling at the University of Alabama to study English and creative writing.  He wrote 21 novels, some of them under the pseudonyms Loyse Deal, Lee Borden, and Michael Sunga.  Much of his work is set in the Deep South.  His one equine themed book, Bluegrass, is thought of very fondly by those who have read it, particularly for the realism of its setting and equine detail.

Finding the book:  reasonably easy to find.  The New English Library version was published as two volumes.

Links and sources:

Borden Deal

The Mississippi Writers’ page

Bibliography - horse books only