Skip to content
Home/ Grandma Burright: The Queen of Harness Racing
Grandma Burright: The Queen of Harness Racing

Grandma Burright: The Queen of Harness Racing

No customer reviews yet ISBN 9781312130777

Neva "Grandma" Burright was born on a race track in 1883, and her 57-year career as a harness racing driver spanned the county fair circuit to the early years of pari-mutuel harness racing after World War II. During the 1940s and 1950s, major newspapers from Boston to Honolulu reported on Grandma Burright's exploits as a harness racing driver. In 1943, she became the first woman to win a Grand Circuit race. In doing so, she defeated the legendary Sep Palin, "the aristocrat of drivers," who had the financial backing of automobile heiress Frances Dodge Johnson. During that Grand Circuit race in Delaware, Ohio, Grandma Burright and Luckyette, her bay gelding, also shocked the harness racing world by setting a record for women drivers over a half-mile track with a time of 2:04 3/4. In addition to Grandma Burright's victories on race tracks, general audience magazines such as Coronet, Esquire, Hit!, Life, and Look magazines featured her in articles. She also appeared before millions on national television in 1954 and stumped the panelists on What's My Line? In Grandma Burright: The Queen of Harness Racing, Kevin Groenhagen explores Grandma Burright's legacy as a wife, mother, grandmother, and, of course, as a harness racing driver. He examines how a diminutive woman of modest means overcame numerous tragedies (the death of a husband, two grandsons, and two sons, all within 12 years) to become known as "The Queen of Harness Racing."

About the author

Product details

Pub dateJun 21, 2023
ISBN-101312130776
ISBN-139781312130777
LanguageEnglish
Last updated 2025-07-18 02:19
Price unavailable
This title cannot be purchased online right now — check back soon.
In stock soon — order now to reserve your copy
Delivery by Tuesday, September 8, 2026
Not available to order Sign in to Add to Saved list
Free delivery on orders over $35.
15-day returns. Any reason.
Secure checkout. We never store card details.

Readers who bought this also bought

More from Animal Sports - Horse Racing
See all
Frankel: Lib/E: The Greatest Racehorse of All Time and the Sport That Made Him
<p>In horse racing greatness is defined by speed. Being the second fastest counts for little. You have to win. And win. And keep winning until every challenger of your generation is put to the sword. Of the 12 horses lined up on Newmarket Heath that 2011 day, one would do just that. And more. To become the greatest racehorse that has ever lived.</p><p>Frankel was born on 11th February 2008, with four white socks and a blaze, from impressive equine lines on both his parents' sides. Simon Cooper revisits the whole of the horse's life, giving listeners an inside tour of the calm oasis that is life on a stud farm, where a foal will live with his mother for the first year of his life. Next, the atmosphere of heady possibility that marks the early days of training. Roadwork. Gallops. Trials. Turning raw potential into something more. Frankel begins to set himself apart.</p><p>A detailed and fast-paced narrative breathlessly recounts the racing career of the horse who, by his retirement to stud at the age of four, would be rated the greatest of all time. Cooper weaves the horse's tale with those of his trainer, battling cancer, the stablehands who coped with his explosive nature, the work rider who tamed him, the jockey who rode in all 14 of his races and the owner who saw his potential from the very beginning. The result is a rich and multifaceted tale of modern horse racing, the lives of everyone involved, human and equine, and the unadulterated glory of winning. And winning everything.</p>
$38.41
Frankel:: The Greatest Racehorse of All Time and the Sport That Made Him
<p>In horse racing greatness is defined by speed. Being the second fastest counts for little. You have to win. And win. And keep winning until every challenger of your generation is put to the sword. Of the 12 horses lined up on Newmarket Heath that 2011 day, one would do just that. And more. To become the greatest racehorse that has ever lived.</p><p>Frankel was born on 11th February 2008, with four white socks and a blaze, from impressive equine lines on both his parents' sides. Simon Cooper revisits the whole of the horse's life, giving listeners an inside tour of the calm oasis that is life on a stud farm, where a foal will live with his mother for the first year of his life. Next, the atmosphere of heady possibility that marks the early days of training. Roadwork. Gallops. Trials. Turning raw potential into something more. Frankel begins to set himself apart.</p><p>A detailed and fast-paced narrative breathlessly recounts the racing career of the horse who, by his retirement to stud at the age of four, would be rated the greatest of all time. Cooper weaves the horse's tale with those of his trainer, battling cancer, the stablehands who coped with his explosive nature, the work rider who tamed him, the jockey who rode in all 14 of his races and the owner who saw his potential from the very beginning. The result is a rich and multifaceted tale of modern horse racing, the lives of everyone involved, human and equine, and the unadulterated glory of winning. And winning everything.</p>
$32.06
Frankel:: The Greatest Racehorse of All Time and the Sport That Made Him
<p>In horse racing greatness is defined by speed. Being the second fastest counts for little. You have to win. And win. And keep winning until every challenger of your generation is put to the sword. Of the 12 horses lined up on Newmarket Heath that 2011 day, one would do just that. And more. To become the greatest racehorse that has ever lived.</p><p>Frankel was born on 11th February 2008, with four white socks and a blaze, from impressive equine lines on both his parents' sides. Simon Cooper revisits the whole of the horse's life, giving listeners an inside tour of the calm oasis that is life on a stud farm, where a foal will live with his mother for the first year of his life. Next, the atmosphere of heady possibility that marks the early days of training. Roadwork. Gallops. Trials. Turning raw potential into something more. Frankel begins to set himself apart.</p><p>A detailed and fast-paced narrative breathlessly recounts the racing career of the horse who, by his retirement to stud at the age of four, would be rated the greatest of all time. Cooper weaves the horse's tale with those of his trainer, battling cancer, the stablehands who coped with his explosive nature, the work rider who tamed him, the jockey who rode in all 14 of his races and the owner who saw his potential from the very beginning. The result is a rich and multifaceted tale of modern horse racing, the lives of everyone involved, human and equine, and the unadulterated glory of winning. And winning everything.</p>
$29.49