Ask a silly question. Marylander Carol Fox, pen name Allison Wilcox, wrote and self-published a book about Swaps, Art Sherman and California Chrome called Three Gallant Hearts. I asked her how it all came to be.
Forty-one minutes later, I had the CliffsNotes version anyway.
Fox read The Black Stallion as a child and became forever enamored with Thoroughbred racing. Some years later, she read an article in Sports Illustrated about Swaps and became forever enraptured by everything about the 1955 Kentucky Derby winner. Retired from a career as a school psychologist in South Carolina and Maryland, she watched California Chrome -- like Swaps a California-bred -- win the 2014 Kentucky Derby for trainer Art Sherman, Swaps' former exercise rider. And became so interested she sent Sherman a letter, hoping to talk to him about Swaps.
She never heard from him, but stay with us. Via Facebook, Fox connected with Karen Oman, who knew Sherman via a group of California Chrome fans who met at Los Alamitos Race Course for breakfast.
"I just love Swaps," Fox told Oman.
"Art talks about Swaps all the time," Oman replied.
"Do you think Art would talk to me?" asked Fox.
Oman checked with Sherman, who as Fox put it, agreed "reluctantly."
She swore to never divulge his phone number to anyone -- still hasn't -- and called him.
"What do you want to know?" he asked.
Based on the conversation, she wrote an article for Writer's Digest called "Two Derbies and a Prayer." It won a third prize ($250) in the magazine's 2018 writing contest. Encouraged, she beefed up that work to 11,000 words, called it "The Prayer that Won a Kentucky Derby" and sent it to a contest run by Amazon. No prize this time, but Fox self-published that 79-page book. Oman gave a copy to Sherman, who enjoyed it and eventually talked to Fox so many times that, "He said I made his ear hurt."
And that's how Three Gallant Hearts came to be.
Fox "tried all kinds" of publishing avenues with more experience and backing, but came up empty and chased down the idea herself. Published this year, the book spans 321 pages, includes an extensive notes and bibliography section and even a few photos. The first half is all about Swaps. The second half is all about California Chrome. The result is part history lesson, part biography, all love for two Thoroughbreds who raced nearly six decades apart but somehow owed at least some part of their success to the same person -- Sherman.
The book looks self-published, which isn't a knock. It's just not fancy. But it's a fun read. There's a chapter about Sherman riding at Bowie in the 1950s -- he won the 1959 Barbara Fritchie Handicap aboard Tinkalero. In the winner's circle, Sherman met Vice President Richard Nixon and discovered they'd gone to the same high school. Fox interviewed Sherman of course, but also found Janice Tenney Sipherd and Renny Tenney, daughter and daughter-in-law of Swaps' trainer Mesh Tenney. Fox talked to Kim Ellsworth, son of Swaps' owner Rex Ellsworth. Turf writer Steve Haskin read the manuscript and provided feedback.
A fan first and an author second, Fox talks like all this surprises her too. At 80, she's a published author and -- as of 2019 anyway -- a Thoroughbred breeder. That tale might be as unlikely as the book's. Long a fan of Thoroughbreds, but never a participant, she stopped in The Mill store in Hampstead, Md., one day in 2014 to look at hanging baskets and met owner/breeder Mary Gale thanks to a stray (well, no longer stray) cat name Chloe.
"Mary Gale had five Thoroughbred mares and when I saw her mares they just gave me goosebumps," said Fox, who adopted the cat. "I said I wanted to breed one of her mares to a stallion with Swaps in his pedigree and be a partner on the horse."
At the time, the only Maryland stallion with Swaps in his pedigree was Imagining. Fox paid the stud fee and Moon Cat Edie (another with Swaps blood way back) went to Imagining. The resulting foal, Ben's Moon Cat, was supposed to sell as a yearling but Fox bought out her partners and planned on racing her. In training with Alberto Delgado (California Chrome's first jockey) and his wife Alison, the filly was injured while training and never raced.
As you could probably tell by now, Fox does not give up easily. Ben's Moon Cat became a broodmare and was bred to Uncle Lino -- winner of the 2016 California Chrome Stakes at Los Alamitos and, yes, a descendent of Swaps. The filly will be a yearling next month.
"Here I am doing something I wanted to do my whole life," Fox said. "Can you believe it?"
