After a 10-page introduction and timeline, and a chapter tracing the advent of horses and racing in the New World and Montana, Wahler starts knocking off the tracks. She documents by chapter the history of racing in Fort Benton, Virginia City and Deer Lodge in the earliest days, then on to Helena, Butte and Anaconda and Daly’s Bitter Root Stock Farm in Hamilton during what she called racing’s first Golden Age in Montana.

Wahler hasn’t ignored the first Montana horse racers. While not state-sanctioned or controlled, racing continues in places like Browning, Crow Agency, Dodson, Baker and Busby. It includes the popular Indian relay racing that Wahler said is helping keep tracks around the state from disappearing under development.

Traces of Spokane’s first training track remain …

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