July 8th, 2002

Elizabeth Mitchell, the former editor of George Magazine and the author of W: Revenge of the Bush Dynasty, will read and sign copies of her new book Three Strides Before the Wire: The Dark and Beautiful World of Horse Racing.

The book tells the story of her introduction to the sport of horse racing when she and her boyfriend (Chuck Fulgham, a U of M creative writing student) decided to go to the Kentucky Derby as a kind of distraction from the Leukemia that would eventually take Chuck's life. Mitchell's winning 20 to 1 bet on a longshot horse named Charismatic drew her in and she spent the next several years exploring the world of jockeys and breaders and race fans.