The Run For The Roses

The House of Machado, led by Dr. Anastasia Machado, M.D., and her husband, Dr. Julio Machado, D.V.M., emerge victorious from the aftermath of a bitter family feud resulting with their taking over the family’s multinational corporation, Sharanski Enterprises. But they only succeed by merging with another multinational corporation, Sabah Incorporated, led by Princess Sheba Al-Sabah. These two fabulously wealthy households quickly unify with the marriage of Joseph “Joey” Machado to Countess Magdalene Al-Sabah. Upon their marriage, Joey and Magdalene discover they are players tasked to live out the lifelong ambition of their Al-Sabah family elders: win horseracing’s Triple Crown. At the same time, the matriarch of the Rearchek clan—Anastasia’s mother—remarries. Upon taking her marriage vows, she instantly becomes embroiled in a quest to fulfill her new husband’s lifelong ambition: see to it that one of their grandchildren becomes the first Italian-Catholic President of the United States. For these two clans, the quest to accomplish those ambitions via manipulation of their offspring will result in a saga that, for both families, cumulates as, The Run For the Roses.

Rose Okanese, a single mother with two kids, has been pushed into a corner by Rez citizens to claim some self-respect, and decides that the fastest way to do that would be for her to run the reserve's annual marathon. Though Rose hasn't run in twenty years, smokes and initially has little motivation, she announces her intention to run the race. One quality Rose doesn't lack is spontaneity which sometimes clashes with her iron will and though she has initial regrets about opening her mouth, her life begins to dictate that she must follow through. But as fate will dictate, one rather huge unforeseen outcome of her decision is that she will have to do battle with an old inadvertently conjured demon that feeds off the strength of women. She is a truly mean old spirit who can invade other women and have them do her bidding and in no time has the Rez in an uproar. As Rose discovers, the old demon has been unintentionally called forth by Rose's teen daughter, Sarah, which complicates Rose's life just a little more. The spirit woman creates a reign of fear and havoc by appearing to people on the reserve and freaking them out, all of which leads to incidents of extreme humour and plot-twisting bemusement, liberally sprinkled with some jittery acts of valour. With a cast of unusual and unfamiliar characters, Dumont interweaves a tale of motherly love, friendship, lustful longing, wîhtikow lore, and Rez humour and keeps the hoopla going until the race is done. At the story's vortex is Rose, a woman destined to face her fears and provide some rich laughter while doing so. Will she send the demon back to where it came from before the spirit claims her teen daughter? Will she get back together with her philandering, rock musician husband before her girls grow up? Will she sort out her best friend's winter pregnancy? But more importantly, will she get this all done before her big, face-saving race with Dahlia Ingram, a woman whom God has designed for one purpose: to run long distances at high speeds with effortless grace.

Each year on the first Saturday in May, the world turns its attention to the twin spires of Churchill Downs for the high-stakes excitement of the "greatest two minutes in sports," the Kentucky Derby. No American sporting event can claim the history, tradition, or pageantry that the Kentucky Derby holds. For more than 130 years, spectators have been fascinated by the magnificent horses that run the Louisville track. Thoroughbreds such as Secretariat and Barbaro have earned instant international fame, along with jockeys such as Isaac Murphy, Ron Turcotte, and Calvin Borel. The Kentucky Derby: How the Run for the Roses Became America's Premier Sporting Event calls this great tradition to post and illuminates its history and culture. Rising from its humble beginnings as an American variation of England's Epsom Derby, the Kentucky Derby became a centerpiece of American sports and the racing industry, confirming Kentucky's status as the Horse Capital of the World. James C. Nicholson argues that the Derby, at its essence, is a celebration of a place, existing as a connection between Kentucky's mythic past and modern society. The Derby is more than just a horse race -- it is an experience enhanced by familiar traditions, icons, and images that help Derby fans to understand Kentucky and define themselves as Americans. Today the Kentucky Derby continues to attract international attention from royalty, celebrities, racing fans, and those who simply enjoy an icy mint julep, a fabulous hat, and a wager on who will make it to the winner's circle. Nicholson provides an intriguing and thorough history of the Kentucky Derby, examining the tradition, spectacle, culture, and evolution of the Kentucky Derby -- the brightest jewel of the Triple Crown.

A killer romance! Relationships aren’t in the cards for everyone and Vladimir ‘Val’ Mihalic figures in his case it’s for the best. When his best friend, Janelle, is seriously injured in a carjacking, putting her career as a jockey on hold, Val steps up to help her through the crisis. It's not long before Janelle’s estranged father shows up at Val’s front door and Val’s life takes a hard sideways turn. Wyatt Harig loves his daughter, but an estrangement was forced upon them. After her injury, he knows things have to be different and he’s the only one who can make that change. Arriving in Kentucky he finds Janelle and Val, a kindhearted, alluring man twenty years his junior, neck deep in an elaborate gambling scheme that’s led to murder. Val is a little happier than he should be when Wyatt stays and starts digging deeper for the truth about Janelle’s ‘accident’. As they uncover the events leading up to that fateful day, a solid friendship, and then more, blossoms between the men. Discovering the truth, which exposes conmen and murderers, puts their love and their lives, in jeopardy.

In 1860s New York, an abandoned baby girl is found by four boys and they adopt her. In time, the boys start a ranch in Montana and she grows up to be a beautiful woman. One day there arrives at the ranch a handsome Scottish lawyer, looking for an English lord's daughter kidnaped two decades earlier. By the author of Prince Charming.

The intersection of race and species has a long and problematic history. Western thinking specifically has demonstrated a societal need to try to conceive of race as a purely biological fact rather than a social construct. This book is an academic-activist challenge to that instinct, prioritizing anti-racism in its observation of the animal–race intersection. Too often, as Bénédicte Boisseron has indicated, this intersection typically appears in the form of animal activists instrumentalizing racial discrimination as a vehicle to approach animal rights. But why does this intersection exist, and, perhaps more importantly, how can we challenge it moving forward? This volume examines those two critical questions, taking an interdisciplinary approach in moving across subjects including art history, film studies, American history, and digital media analysis. Our interpretation of animals has, for centuries, been fundamental in the development of Western race thinking. This collection of essays looks at how this perspective contributes to the construction of racial discrimination, prioritizing ways to read the animal in our culture as a means for working to dismantle this conception.