Monday, September 15, 2025

The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told: A True Tale of Three Gamblers, The Kentucky Derby, and the Mexican Cartel by Mark Paul

 



I never thought I'd enjoy a nonfiction audiobook about horse racing and gambling so much!! Suffice it to say that The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told: A True Tale of Three Gamblers, The Kentucky Derby, and the Mexican Cartel is really good!! 

The primary focus of The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told: A True Tale of Three Gamblers, The Kentucky Derby, and the Mexican Cartel is on horse racing as it pertains to the 1988 Kentucky Derby and its winning filly, Winning Colors, along with some of the major players pertaining to horse racing like horse trainer, D. Wayne Lukas (trainer for Winning Colors), Gene Klein (owner of Winning Colors), Gary Stevens (jockey for Winning Colors), the three gamblers who bet big on Winning Colors, the Mexican cartel, and various other aspects of horse racing.

The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told: A True Tale of Three Gamblers, The Kentucky Derby, and the Mexican Cartel by Mark Paul is well written, engaging, informative, and well organized. I enjoyed that this book isn't over stuffed with factoids and is just the right length to keep the interest of the readers.

Below is the publisher's summary for The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told: A True Tale of Three Gamblers, The Kentucky Derby, and the Mexican Cartel by Mark Paul found on Chirp's website:
The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told is an inspiring personal narrative about a filly who broke through the male-dominated world of horseracing and inspired crowds of men and women alike, along with a trio of gamblers who embark on an unforgettable adventure that’s as epic as the historic victory of Winning Colors. It’s Seabiscuit meets Narcos, and the best true-life gambling story ever told.

In the late 1980s, a spectacular 3-year-old female racehorse named Winning Colors was being groomed for success under her famous “Hollywood” trainer, D. Wayne Lukas, and the billionaire owner of the San Diego Chargers pro-football team, Eugene Klein. Meanwhile, three fun-loving gamblers, Miami Paul, Dino Mateo, and Big Bernie believed that Winning Colors could be the unlikely female winner of the 1988 Kentucky Derby.

When the gamblers unknowingly place their longshot bet with members of a suspected drug cartel at a racetrack in Tijuana, Mexico, they must figure out how to claim their prize - without getting killed in the process. In a heart-pounding race of their own across the U.S.-Mexico border, the trio come face-to-face with suspected killers, are arrested by the Border Patrol, and fumble their way through the riskiest bet of their lives.
I am giving The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told: A True Tale of Three Gamblers, The Kentucky Derby, and the Mexican Cartel by Mark Paul a rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 stars. This is my fifth read for the month of September.

Until my next post, happy reading!!

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