Readers Up #24: Backstretch Girls
A Wednesday newsletter? Feels funky! Then again, time has been revealed as being an agreed-upon fiction, so who knows--maybe it’s actually Friday. Anyway...
Ah, New Jersey. I’ve never been. I drove through it once, and was startled because before hitting the state line, I thought that New Jersey was north of New York. To be fair, parts of it are; northeastern geography is almost as fake as linear time. All this to say, Dawn LeFevre’s novel Backstretch Girls taught me more about New Jersey than the Florida public school system, to be sure, and only slightly less than The Sopranos--including the fact that there was once a racetrack called the Atlantic City Race Course. Despite some famous shareholders investing at the track’s opening (including Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope), by the 1980s timeline of Backstretch Girls, ACRC was in a decline.
Yet decline is often more illuminating than a red-letter day, and for this reader, the hardscrabble lives and dirt-caked details of Teagan and Anne, LeFevre’s dual heroines, were more compelling than if the girls had been flying high at Keeneland or Santa Anita from the gate. That’s the endless appeal of racing: the exhilaration that lives at the wire belongs to claimers and Breeder’s Cup nominees alike. Sometimes those two worlds even co-exist in the same horse. As a lover of regional mythmaking, I was immediately enamored of LeFevre's heartfelt Jersey girls, breakneck track antics, and commitment to grime and hard truths. Racing likes to show off its glamorous side, often at the expense of day-to-day rough work, difficult realities, and narrow windows of opportunity. Reading about horses like Lucky All Over and Haunting Melody made me long to be back at Suffolk Downs or Aqueduct, while clinging for dear life to Teagan and Anne's wild ride reminded me of the resilience and heart found in all women striving within a sport that has always encompassed and only occasionally centered them.
Even within the skinny subgenre of jockey-centered racetrack stories, it’s rare to see a jock successful and competent at the outset of the novel. The superstar protagonist is often eschewed in favor of greenhorns and dreamers--and those who've forgotten how to dream. Rags-to-riches is common fictional architecture, and few stories are so suited to the trope as racing's twisted luck and knife-edge fortunes. Backstretch Girls joins these ranks in its depiction of Anne, a would-be bug girl trying to dig into down-at-heel Atlantic City and facing local reactions ranging from apathetic to openly hostile and exploitative. A hole opens up for her in the form of Teagan, a sardonic pony girl doing her damnednest to distance herself from her high-falutin horse-show family. Once the two are thrown together, it’s clear that their paths to the winners’ circle will be anything but smooth. As a former trainer, LeFevre brings years of experience on the front and backsides of the track to her book. All the oft-invisible but integral moving parts of the racetrack get their due, from farriers to gallop riders. Most importantly, both racing’s glories and sordid tragedies are shown in unsentimental prose, striking a balance between cynicism and rose-tinted hope.
Plus, between the two of them, Teagan and Anne wear t-shirts representing bands from Metallica to Whitesnake. Girls after my own heart… and their author is, too. Below you’ll find a glance behind the scenes of Backstretch Girls, Dawn's equine inspirations, and her thoughts on the heavy hitters of 80s metal!
Hi, Dawn! Thanks for chatting about Backstretch Girls and your writing life. First off--congratulations on your nomination for the 2019 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award! Please give us a glance into how you decided to begin writing about racehorses.
I spent 15+ years on the backstretch so racehorses were a large part of my life. I really miss those days and wanted to pay tribute to the people, horses and tracks that I'd known and loved by writing this book.
Like me, Teagan and Anne are big fans of 80s heavy metal! Lightning round: Megadeth or Metallica? Warrant or Ratt? Warlock or Coven?
Metallica. Warrant--Warren DeMartini from Ratt is great guitarist but I loathe Stephen Pearcy's voice. Warlock--I've met Doro twice, she is so sweet and her voice is so powerful yet she is the size of a jockey!
As you're a former trainer, Backstretch Girls is bolstered by a wealth of real-world know-how. How do you balance writing for racetrackers versus a wider audience who may not be familiar with the ins and outs of Thoroughbreds?
By keeping it real. Most racetrackers have had similar experiences to what I've described in the book and I try to explain them in a way so that the non-horsey reader can understand.
Catching the attention of the publishing world can be difficult for writers working in the Thoroughbred vein. Was self-publishing Backstretch Girls your original plan? Have you or do you plan to pitch racing stories to traditional publishers?
I'd originally planned to go the traditional route and had full manuscript requests from several agents. I was very close to being signed by one who ultimately passed because she felt that the market for my book was too small and suggested that I pursue self-publishing instead. I will contact her again after I finish my next novel as it appeals to a broader audience but is still set on the racetrack.
Haunting Melody and Lucky All Over are endearing, realistic racehorses whose plotlines deliver heart-pumping and heart-breaking emotional beats. Did you draw on any currently-active or historic racehorses for these equine characters?
Haunting Melody is named after a filly that I owned and trained. She was given to me for free as she was suffering from a throat abscess. I gave her time to heal and she wound up winning two races for me before I lost her in a claim. The fictional Haunting Melody's appearance and story is based on a gray mare named Kathy's Kathy who won multiple races despite having a bowed tendon. Lucky All Over is a tribute to two wonderful mares--Plain All Over, a multiple stakes winner and NJ Champion 2 Year Old Filly of 1989. She was my once-in-a-lifetime horse. I was her groom/assistant trainer. Luckey Lipco was one of the most gallant racehorses I'd ever seen. Yes, she was a claimer but she was a true fighter who almost never lost a photo. She loved AC, won 4 races in a row there one year and 3 in a row the next. She is the dam of Joey P., a million dollar earner and champion sprinter.
What was the first piece of writing you ever created, fiction or non?
The first story I can remember writing was "The Purple Horse". I was 5 years old and it was about a horse being bullied by the other horses because she was purple. I didn't start writing seriously until college; there I wrote a weekly column of heavy metal album reviews and articles.
What’s next on your project list?
I'm currently writing another equestrian fiction novel, this time set at Garden State Park.
What’s a book in the racing canon that you’d recommend to any reader?
I loved Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand, both the book and movie.
If Dawn’s rollicking racetracker saga sounds like it's up your alley (or shedrow), you can find Backstretch Girls online and in bookstores. Check out more about Dawn's projects, and follow her on Twitter for the latest!
Eyeing Belmont from a socially safe distance of 170 miles,
Diana