Bug Boy: A Novel

It is summer 1934 at Saratoga Race Course, where wealthy socialites enjoy the races despite the Great Depression, while track workers like fifteen-year-old Jack Walsh struggle with poverty. When Jack moves from exercise rider to apprentice jockey—known as a bug boy—he becomes an overnight sensation. His sudden success attracts attention from a intelligent blonde woman with hidden connections to the track's underworld, and from a dangerous man who pressures Jack to compromise his jockey's code in exchange for money that could help his struggling family. Set in the rough backstretch world of Thoroughbred racing, the novel follows a young athlete whose rapid rise in America's most popular sport brings mounting pressure to make a choice that could destroy his career and reputation.