THE BLACK STALLION
This is the classic tale of a boy and a horse. Alec Ramsey, on
his way home from visiting his missionary Uncle in India, is on board The Drake when
a group of Arabs load a wild, black stallion on the boat in one of the staterooms.
The horse is totally unmanageable and obviously hates his handlers. When THE DRAKE
sinks, Alec sees the Arab that brought the horse go overboard and not resurface.
Alec frees the stallion hoping he'll have a chance to survive and when Alec himself
ends up in the ocean, it's the black stallion's catch rope that he is able to grab
and the horse pulls him to a deserted island. During their time on the island, Alec
and the stallion which he now calls The Black become friends. When by chance, a boat
and crew discover them, Alec manages to convince the crew to also take on the horse.
Eventually, Alec and The Black arrive in New York on another boat after some hair-raising
adventures with the half-wild stallion passenger. Flushing, New York, isn't exactly
the best place to keep horses but Alec is able to board The Black at a barn owned
by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Dailey and also occupied by Napoleon, an old gray horse owned
by Tony, a fruit huckster. Napoleon and The Black become friends, luckily. Henry
Dailey just happens to be an ex-jockey/ race horse trainer and when Alec demonstrates
The Black’s speed, his interest is awakened but The Black has no papers or registration
and can't be raced with thoroughbreds on a regular race track.
Nonetheless, with the help of an old track friend, Jake, Henry and Alec haul The
Black to Belmont Park at night (with Napoleon to keep him company) and try his speed
- which proves remarkable! They are at a dead end until rivalry between to top thoroughbreds,
Cyclone and Sun Raider, trigger a planned match race. A match race technically isn't
a regular thoroughbred competition and by bringing a well known race reporter out
to watch The Black run at night, Henry and Alec are able to get The Black accepted
in the race as "The Mystery Horse". After Alec convinces his father that he really
has to ride The Black, they are off to the races! Most people think The Mystery Horse
is a joke but when The Black appears on the track in Chicago (a half-way point for
the two main competitors), the race fans begins to realize this is no joke. On the
way to the post, The Black and Sun Raider have a bit of a battle and The Black is
injured. Alec is about to dismount when the race starts and there's no holding The
Black. Though left at the post, he, of course, shows the other two horses his heels
and proves himself the fastest horse in the country.
The Black Stallion - The Movie
If you've seen the movie THE BLACK STALLION, it actually
follows the book's plot most of the time. One major difference is that Alex's father
was not with him on the boat as the movie portrayed and did not die with the ill-fated
Drake. Also, Napoleon's owner is not an elderly Negro but rather an Italian, Tony
(didn't catch his last name). Alex Ramsey, as portrayed in the movie, is not similar
to the book version. In the book, Alex is red haired and is graduating from High
School just before the big race in Chicago. The Alex in the movie is black haired,
obviously younger (the short school scene when he returns home looks to be about
fifth or sixth grade) and not at all convincing as a race horse jockey! He does some
good acting in the boat and island scenes but as soon as he has any speaking parts,
he's very poor in my opinion. And the silly "Mystery Rider" get-up he wears for
the race is ridiculous!
THE BLACK STALLION RETURNS
The story starts with an attempted attack on The Black
by an unknown person who leaves behind a hypodermic of deadly poison and a medallion
with a phoenix portrayed on it. Shortly after this, an Arab, Abu Ja Kub Ben Ishak,
arrives at the Ramsey home with papers that identify him as the real owner of The
Black otherwise known as Shetan. Alec must turn The Black over to him to be returned
to Arabia. When Mr. Volence, the owner of Sun Raider, later contacts Alec hoping
to buy The Black and learns the horse is gone, he suggests they travel to Arabia
in hopes of obtaining horses of the same breeding and Alec, Henry Dailey and Mr.
Volence do so. Arriving in Arabia, they stay with Mr. Coggins, a friend of Mr. Volence
and meet Raj, Mr. Coggins' houseboy who will travel with them across the desert to
the mountainous home of Abu Ishak and act as translator. Their journey across the
desert is threatened by raiders and a sandstorm which leaves the travellers in dire
straits until they meet a group of desert riders who agree to take them where they
can reach Abu Ishak's home, but will not take them all the way as they are rival
tribes.
Reaching Abu Ishak, Alec again sees The Black but learns he is being prepared for
a race against the best horses of all the other tribes including Sagr, the mount
of the Arab, Abd-al-Rahman, who rescued Alec and his friends. The rider of The Black
is hard on the horse and tries to break his spirit using whip and spurs. When Abu
Ishak "fires" him, no one else can ride The Black except Alec. Then The Black disappears,
obviously stolen and Abd-al-Rahman is suspected. Alec and Raj ride with Abu Ishak's
riders as they go on against Abd-al-Rahman's tribe and a major battle seems imminent
until Alec and Raj find The Black hidden away by Ibn Al Khalden, the Arab raider
who had attempted to kill The Black in New York. They also learn that Raj is the
long lost brother of Abd-al-Rahman who had been left in the desert after Ibd Al Khalden's
raiders had killed his family and other members of his caravan when Raj was just
a young child. Rescuing The Black, Alec rides him off while Raj goes for reinforcements
and brings the united forces of the two former enemy tribes to the rescue. Of course,
all the "bad guys" except Ibn Al Khalden, who escapes, are taken care of and former
misunderstandings are cleared up. Only the big race remains. Abu Ishak asks Alec
to ride The Black (of course). During the race, The Black and Sagr are clearly the
best two entries and are leading when Ibn Al Khalden appears and attempts to shoot
The Black but is done in by Abd-al-Rahman. Then, he and Alec face off in a head-to-head
race to the finish and, of course, The Black triumphs. Abu Ishak wins some of the
best horses of his rivals, Raj is reunited with his tribe, Mr. Volence gets four
horses to bring home and, while The Black must remain with Abu Ishak to carry on
his blood, Alec is promised the first foal of The Black and Johar, an outstanding
mare ridden by Tabari, Abu Ishak's daughter.
The Black Stallion Returns - The Movie
If you saw the movie version of THE BLACK STALLION
RETURNS, you could only be disappointed. It is so poorly done compared to the first
movie, it's really unbelievable. Abu Ishak "steals" The Black, Alec stows away on
an international flight in order to follow his horse, manages to wander across the
desert meeting both the "bad guy" Arab and meeting Raj who is making his way home
to his tribe and does get to Abu Ishak's home where he claims protection from Abu
(which is an Arab tradition). Then Tabari asks Alec to help her ride The Black as
she's going in the race with him. While riding The Black, the evil tribe captures
them but, of course, Alec gets loose, The Black gets free and they escape to ride
in the big race - only Raj is the rider on Sagr. You really didn't miss anything
if you didn't see the movie. Just a note on the horses used - El Moktar, the horse
that did the racing scenes, died of colic in Arabia while filming. The black arab
that did the stunt work broke a leg while rehearsing a routine at Glenn Randall's
training facility and eventually had to be put down. Only Cass Ole, the original
Black Stallion that did the close up work survived.
SON OF THE BLACK STALLION
When Alec Ramsey receives a letter from Abu Ja Kub Ben
Ishak that he is being sent the first foal of The Black as the Sheik had promised,
he is elated. He contacts Henry Dailey, who has been working for Peter Boldt, who
owns a large racing stable but who is determined to own the best race horses and
has no patience with horses that don't win. Henry quits his job and returns to be
with Alec when his foal arrives. Alec's father, who is rather reluctant to think
that Alec might try racing again, accompanies his son, assuming this horse will be
something he can have nice rides with in Central Park. When the foal appears, it's
a black duplicate of his sire - with a temper that is nothing short of devilish -
and claims the name Satan. His start in New York is poor as he kicks Sebastian, Alec's
dog, sending it off to their vet. Arriving at Henry's stable is no better as he hates
Napoleon, the horse of Tony, the vegetable peddlar. Alec definitely plans to train
Satan as a future race horse but he has one problem. A jockey cannot own the horse
he rides. To solve the problem, Alec makes a deal with his father that he will continue
college for the next year, leaving Satan in Henry's care, if his father will officially
register Satan as his horse, bought for $1.00 from Alec. Reluctantly, Alec's father
agrees and signs the official papers and bill of sale.
Returning from college, Alec finds there hasn't been much change in Satan except
he's bigger, stronger and faster. He hates everyone. Henry can barely manage him.
When they attempt to train Satan to saddle, the colt will have none of it. Stymied
by Satan's temper, Henry attempts to use horse-breaker methods on the colt but Satan
is stronger and flees from Henry, jumping the fence. Unfortunately, Henry had tied
Satan to a tree. When the horse jumps the fence, he runs out of rope and goes down,
choking himself. Alec appears and manages to rescue Satan before he chokes to death.
The whole incident changes Satan's attitude - to Alec, but not Henry. He had also
gained a fear of crops as Henry had used a whip on him. Training proceeds and Alec
and Henry start working Satan at Belmont again at night. Satan proves he can run
and is definitely going to be a racehorse. Eventually, Henry makes arrangements to
take Satan to the track during the day and work him with The Chief, a horse of another
trainer Henry knows. Here they discover the big problem. Satan's fear of whips causes
him to be uncontrollable when the other jockey uses his bat on The Chief. Alec and
Henry go into a program to try to get Satan over his fear. In the meantime, they
enter him in The Sanford in preparation for aiming him at The Hopeful, a big two-year-old
competition. Using blinkers on Satan, Alec survives some tense moments and wins The
Sanford in impressive style. As The Hopeful nears, Satan will have to run against
Desert Storm, the foal of one of the horses Mr. Volence got from Abu Ishak, as well
as Boldt's Comet, the favored horse of the owner Henry had worked for. Mr. Boldt,
fearful of losing, challenges Alec on ownership of Satan, claiming that Satan actually
isn't owned by Alec's father. This leads to a frantic search for the bill of sale
(which ends up stuck in the corner of a clothes basket where it fell out of Alec's
father's jacket) and, of course, Satan makes it to the race and tromps all those
other "second class" runners! In the process, he makes his peace with Henry, too,
and even Abu Ishak shows up to see Shetan's son's victory and all ends well!
THE ISLAND STALLION
Steve Duncan, a young man, travels to visit his friend, Phil Pitcher
("Pitch"), who lives on Antago Island in the Carribean. He has been drawn by a news
article about wild horses captured on nearby Azul Island. Steve badly wants a horse
and hopes he can get one. Arriving on Antago, Steve and Pitch watch Pitch's stepbrother,
Tom, breaking the wild horses with cruel methods. Pitch and Steve plan to spend two
weeks on Azul Island and Tom laughs at the plan saying Steve will never last the
time on such a remote spot. Tom says Steve can have any horse on the island if he
manages to survive the two weeks. Steve and Pitch sail off and camp on the small
sand spit. Most of Azul Island is assumed to be rock but during the night, Steve
is awakened by the scream of a horse and sees a huge red stallion on an outcrop high
on the island's rock wall. This is not one of the scruffy wild horses living on the
sand spit which means there must be an unexplored area within the island. Pitch is
excited as he wants to search for relics of the Conquistadors who had fled to this
island and supposedly left the ancestors of the wild herd.
They sail around the island looking for some entrance no one has found and find a
difficult series of steps carved into the rock wall. This leads to a deep ventilation
hole and they find a series of tunnels within the island. When Pitch drops their
only flashlight, they are in trouble and lost in the dark passages until they eventually
come out in a hidden valley. Pitch finds proof of the Conquistadors' presence and
Steve sees the red stallion he calls Flame with a herd of fine wild horses. When
Flame fights a huge piebald stallion, the older piebald defeats Flame and he runs
off with Steve following him. Flame leads him to a cavern which was used by the Conquistadors
to bring in their ships. The fleeing horse stumbles into a hidden pool of quicksand,
trapping him. Steve is able to use an ancient winch to rescue Flame. In the process,
Flame is "tamed" and allows Steve to befriend him. (Oh, well - it’s a good story.)
While Pitch continues to explore and search the island's tunnels, Steve helps Flame
recover from his battle injuries. Eventually, Pitch finds part of the tunnels they
had marked with chalk directions before the loss of their flashlight. They can now
return to their boat and leave the island. Meanwhile, a recovered Flame returns to
the herd and again takes on the piebald stallion, this time defeating him. Steve
leaves realizing that Flame is now king of the horses. On reaching Antago, Tom meets
them and tells Steve he never thought they'd make the two weeks and Steve has earned
his choice of any horse on the island - not knowing there's a lot more there than
others know of.
THE BLACK STALLION AND SATAN
This book starts out with Satan winning the Belmont Stakes
and, thereby, the Triple Crown of American races. Alec finds himself somewhat unhappy
as now Satan is a reformed character from the rogue he had been. Other jockeys can
ride him and Satan and Henry are good friends. Alec finds it hard to find "his" horse
now belongs to "everyone" since Satan is no longer a one-man animal. Henry continues
racing Satan while Alec is home in Flushing, NY. There he receives a telegram from
Tabari, Sheik Abu Ishak's daughter. Her father has been killed in an accident while
riding Shetan (The Black) and his will specified that the horse should be sent to
Alec, else she would have had the stallion destroyed. Henry and Alec pick up The
Black at the airport on his arrival. The Black has not changed and is as wild as
ever with only Alec able to handle him and they take him to Henry's stable and Napoleon,
who is still The Black's pal. Then news of Satan setting a new record of 1:59 for
a mile and a quarter temps Alec to test The Black (now seven years old) in a night
gallop in Central Park to see if he's as good as Satan. In the process, Alec gets
stopped by a policeman for "galloping a horse in the park" and, worse, The Black
only raced the distance in 2:00. Even worse, the news is out that The Black is back
in the U.S. bringing newsmen and the public to see the horse. Jim Neville, Alec's
friend, is among them.
When a big invitational International race is announced, with Neville's help, it
is decided to try and race The Black with Satan and the other entries. Unfortunately,
at the track, it is discovered that The Black has little interest is racing and only
wants to fight every other stallion there. Alec is convinced they must scratch The
Black when disaster happens and one of the entrants is diagnosed with equine infectious
anaemia and has to be destroyed. Worse yet, the trainer had borrowed a water bucket
belonging to Alec and Henry with the possibility of The Black or Satan being contaminated
by the disease (actually not possible as EIA can only be transmitted by blood from
an infected horse - which wasn't known at the time. This was all written in pre-Coggins
test era.) All the race entrants are moved to a State Farm where they will have blood
samples injected into a test horse and have to wait to see if the test horse becomes
ill. To simplify things, Alec and Henry volunteer Napoleon as test horse for The
Black and Satan. It will take forty days to see if there are any results. Meanwhile,
a drought has hit the area and everything is very dry. When a storm comes up, lightning
starts a fire in the woods and the horses are trapped in a field. Alec manages to
get aboard The Black and ride him to a hidden field gate he had seen earlier, leading
all the other horses after him. Their only chance to escape the flames is to race
through the woods ahead of the fire. In an unofficial International Race, The Black
outruns all the others, even with Alec aboard, but only Alec knows the result of
the run. When all the horses are safe and The Black and Satan, Alec and Henry are
headed home - to a new farm Alec has purchased, Henry asks who won the race against
the fire and Alec lets him believe that Satan did as The Black had to run carrying
a rider which would be too much of a handicap to expect The Black to overcome. The
book ends with a lead-in to a later story as Henry tells Alec of an old friend who
has a standardbred mare and he would like to help him out by letting him breed to
The Black since The Black is unmanageable on the reacetrack and is going to stud.
THE BLOOD BAY COLT
Jimmy Creech, an old friend of Henry Daley, has been racing standardbred
horses at County Fair races for years and has been down on his luck lately. Another
older man, George Snedecker, is Jimmy's friend and helper. Jimmy is still racing
his old trotter, Symbol, and trying to keep him racing sound. Jimmy has bred his
remaining brood mare, Volo Queen, to The Black, but is becoming discouraged and plans
to sell the mare. Young Tom Messenger, a friend of Jimmy's, doesn't want to see the
mare sold as she's near foaling and the foal may be Jimmy's future. (NOTE: At this
time, you probably could breed a standardbred to a thoroughbred as there was such
a thing as a non-standardbred registry. It meant the horse was standardbred except
for a non-standardbred ancestor. Should the horse make standard time on a race track,
(2:20 for a trotter) the animal would become a registered full standardbred. This
registry no longer exists and standardbreds must be full bred to be registered. I
owned two non-standardbreds back in the '70's so I was familair with this rule.)
The sale falls through and Tom takes Queen to his Uncle's farm while Jimmy is off
racing Symbol.
Queen foals a bay colt and Tom helps raise it and begin its basic training. Jimmy
is having health problems and a racing accident sidelines Symbol who is getting too
old to race. Tom continues training the colt they have registered as Bonfire. In
its two-year-old year, they begin racing Bonfire at County Fairs with Tom driving.
Tom soon learns that Bonfire may have a world of speed but there's a lot more to
winning races in harness than just going for the lead when older, smarter drivers
"trap" him on the rail. They begin to have success at the Fairs, but the purses are
small and Jimmy doesn't want them to race Bonfire at top speed. Jimmy is VERY against
the professional harness racing on major tracks under lights at night and despises
one of the newer trainers, Phillip Cox, who just happens to have a top trotter, Silver
Knight. However, when Jimmy has major health problems and requires a serious operation,
the only option left for Tom and George, who's been helping him, is to enter Bonfire
in the two-year-old Championship Trot at a major professional track. Of course, this
is also a "dash" race, not a series of heats, as County Fair races are. Knowing Jimmy
would go ballistic over their entry, Tom and George keep their entry secret. Of course,
Bonfire wins in a new record of 1:59 for the mile. When Jimmy comes out of the hospital
after the race, they can no longer keep Bonfire's win secret. Jimmy blows a cork
until Tom and George convince him that Bonfire's fame will help keep harness racing
as it was by getting people to still enjoy the "old" way of racing. (A rather unconvincing
finish, but all is well at the end.)
THE BLACK STALLION'S SULKY COLT
This is a sequel to THE BLOOD BAY COLT. For those
not familair with the term, "sulky" refers to the two wheel racing cart, not the
horse's temperament. Bonfire, the harness racing son of The Black, is continuing
his racing career and aiming for the Hambletonian, the trotter's equivalent of the
Kentucky Derby. Unfortunately, while competing in a prep race, Bonfire and Silver
Knight, another trotter, have a pile up when Silver Knight tries coming through too
small a hole. The accident leaves Bonfire spooked whenever a horse comes up on his
right side. Meanwhile, Alec Ramsey has come to visit and see how The Black's son
is doing. Tom Messenger, the young trainer of Bonfire ( Bonfire's owner, Jimmy Creech,
is ill and under a doctor's care) asks Alec to help by borrowing another trotter
and having a practice with Bonfire, now wearing blinkers. All goes well until Tom
asks Alec to pass Bonfire. Bonfire spooks badly, throwing Tom from the sulky and
Alec drives over him before he can turn his borrowed horse. Tom also ends up in the
hospital with a broken arm. Feeling somewhat responsible, Alec volunteers to continue
with Bonfire and calls on Henry Dailey for help. Henry has little love for "tail-sitters"
as harness horsemen are called by flat racing people but does come. He devises a
special set of blinkers with an eye cup that can be closed and opened by the driver.
Alec begins to work Bonfire with the blinker and finds it will work so long as he
doesn't have to keep the eye closed for more than a very short time. Bonfire will
not accept a fully closed eye cup.
As Alec starts to race Bonfire, Alec has problems dealing with passing horses as
he fears that Bonfire will panic again, especially if he can't get the horse clear
of other entries to his right. Meanwhile, Alec and Henry ship Bonfire off to Goshen,
NY., the site of the Hambletonian. The Hambletonian is a "heat" race, rather than
a "dash" as most harness races are now. The winner is the horse winning two of three
heats. In the first heat, Bonfire does very badly as he gets caught in traffic at
the start and bolts when Alec isn't able to open his eye cup fast enough. Into the
second heat, Bonfire has to start in the second rank of horses so doesn't have the
same traffic problem. With a little luck and a big effort, Alec manages to get Bonfire
across the finish first by a nose. As the third heat comes up, Henry feels Alec has
more problems than Bonfire and is coming to depend on the special blinker too greatly
and he takes it back. He feels Bonfire has gotten over his problem and now Alec has
to get over his, too. And, of course, he's right. Despite Alec's fears, they manage
to race without an accident and, of course, it's Bonfire at the finish. A nice story,
but totally impossible. Alec would never be able to drive any harness race. You need
a long apprenticeship starting on county fair tracks and would have to work up to
getting a license both to train and drive in a recognized race. It couldn't be done!
Also, the story is rather dated as the Hambletonian was moved to DuQuoin, Illinois,
and, I believe, has since been moved to The Meadowlands in New Jersey.
THE ISLAND STALLION RACES
If you think the previous book was a little "way out", this
one takes the cake! Luckily, I enjoy sci-fi, so this never bothered me. Anyhow....
Steve Duncan again is spending his vacation on Azul Island, this time, alone, as
Pitch is in New York doing research on the Conquistadors to back up his finds on
the island. While resting after a fast ride on Flame, Steve and the horses are disturbed
by a huge fireball that passes over Blue Valley. Steve assumes that it was a massive
meteor that must have landed in the sea just beyond the island and goes through the
hidden tunnels to see if it did any damage. He observes a large glow over the water
just outside the island. Returning the next day, he sees the glow is still there
and is concerned as he feels any meteor would now be deep in the ocean. He's even
more disturbed when he discovers two strange men in the entrance to the tunnels as
he returns to the valley and has no idea how they got there. "Jay" and "Flick" convince
him they are harmless and visit with him. Jay is vastly interested in Flame and the
horses as he is a racing fan. In their following meetings, Steve learns that Jay
and Flick are "tourists" from another planet and can assume various shapes at will
(human beings or birds). Jay can also read Steve's mind and "learns" of an International
Race that is "open to the world" to be held in Havana, Cuba, which Steve had dreamed
he was riding in as he raced Flame around the valley. Jay proposes that he and Steve
and Flame go to Cuba and enter the race. He talks Flick into agreeing with his plan
and using their ship to take Steve and Flame there, despite Flick's protests. And
so they go, though they are forced to take one of the smaller "cruisers" instead
of the main ship.
On reaching Cuba, Jay has made stabling arrangements away from the city and travels
to Havana to enter Flame, posing as a rich Dutchman. (The Flying Dutchman, maybe?
Ha, ha!) He manages to wangle an entry, mostly as a publicity stunt, as the International
is "by invitation only" but "Flame of The Windward Islands" could be portrayed as
the Cuban entry. When the race director sees Flame, he agrees, not knowing what he's
getting into. Jay hires a truck and drives Steve and Flame to the track. Steve has
no silks, will be riding bareback (obviously, no weight requirements!!!) and controlling
Flame only with a special hackamore made by Jay. Just as the race is about to begin,
Jay comes running up telling Steve he has received word his ship has to leave sooner
than planned and they've got to get back with the cruiser ASAP!!! Steve manages to
get Flame in the starting gate and the race is on! However, he's got the same problem
Alec Ramsey had racing The Black. Flame's only interested in fighting the other horses,
not racing them. By constantly getting Flame to pursue one horse after another, Steve
gets Flame in the lead. With no other horse ahead, Flame is about to quit when the
outrider rides onto the track and Steve aims Flame at him and wins the race. Unable
to take part in any ceremonies, Steve, Flame and Jay take off with all the reporters
and newsmen following them. The three enter the cruiser (which is pretty much invisible)
and literally disappear in front of the cameras. Jay gets everything back to Azul
Island and Steve wakes up in the valley thinking he's had a pretty wild dream as
Flame shows no sign of having raced (he got a bad rub on his side by running too
close to the rail). There are no marks on the horse, there's no special hackamore,
his boat, which he had used to get Flame out to the "ship" is back where is belongs
in the hidden boat launch and there's no strange glow over the water when Steve goes
to look. What a dream! Meanwhile, in New York, as Pitch leaves the library after
a day of study, he gets an evening paper with a photo of Flame and Steve (who doesn't
look the same as Jay used a special liquid that changed Steve's features) and the
news that no one has claimed the $50,000 purse for winning the International and
no one can find the missing horse, rider or owner. The book ends with Pitch hurrying
off to the airport to get back to Azul Island and find out what's been going on.
Again, this is a dated story and was written in pre-Castro days. There wouldn't have
been any International in Castro's Cuba!
