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|summary=Perhaps a little dauntingly rustic and rural at the start, this tale of impoverished horsemen and their hopes is well worth sticking with through to the winning post.
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'''Longlisted for the [[Orange Prize for Fiction 2012]]'''
 
West Virginia, 1970. We're at a rundown race track, of the dusty kind rundown horses and their rundown owner/trainers fetch up living in, with the occasional race to interrupt the boredom. Into things comes a young upstart hoping to surprise all with his four unknown quantities and make a packet before fleeing. His girlfriend is here too to help out, and naively eager for success and knowledge, but old hands like Medicine Ed have seen it all before. Also in the background are some small-time gangsters who are not too keen at for once not knowing who is doing what and how races are going to be run and won.