Ellen McHale’s ethnographic overview of the thoroughbred culture in the United States focuses primarily on a perspective of the sport from the point of view of those insiders who work and live in the “backstretch”: grooms, jockeys, farriers, trainers, hot walkers, and pony riders. Based on extensive fieldwork and interviews that took place over an eight-year period (1996-2003), McHale’s book is lavishly illustrated with full-page color photographs of the backstretch world.
Stable Views is a study of occupational folklife intended for a general audience. The narratives, personal observations, explanation of jargon, and historical background are seamlessly woven together to provide the reader with a panoramic introduction to the thoroughbred work culture. McHale’s descriptions of the various rituals and work routines performed by “backstretchers” illustrate both the range of technique exercised by insiders as well as the social hierarchies and stratification in the racing world. She is at her best as an ethnographer, however, when she describes the lives of racing legends such as Calvin Kaintuck, Louis Olah, and Tom Luther, and lets their voices be heard. Luther worked his way up in the indentured servitude of racing as a jockey. He later was blackballed in the racing world for organizing the Jockeys’ Guild—a labor organization that continues to offer financial support to injured jockeys in the United States.
McHale forcefully presents the discrimination and exclusion faced by women and blacks in the thoroughbred world. Her more theoretical analyses of work techniques, rituals in racing, and the cultural significance of luck and play, are at times a bit forced. As this is a highly stratified subculture, the importance of class as an arena of conflict and discussion is minimally explored. This may have more to do with the constraints placed on an ethnographer by professional institutions than any oversight by McHale. She shrewdly allows the voices of insiders to tell the tales of physical and economic exploitation in the rich man’s sport of kings.
This is an important book for those interested in the sport of thoroughbred racing and ethnographies of work. It is very difficult to represent the occupational folklife of a work culture that has so many divergent contexts and participants. McHale has done an excellent job immersing herself in this world and presenting it with clarity, honesty, and integrity. As a true test of the quality of McHale’s work, Stable Views will be read with interest by backstretcher and folklorist alike.
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[Review length: 402 words • Review posted on February 1, 2017]