Why was John Morrissey, the bare-knuckled boxer behind the establishment of Saratoga Race Course, known as “Old Smoke?”

What did racing fans in Louisville do before Churchill Downs was built?

Was the Belmont Stakes ever hosted in the Bronx?

Answers to these questions and so much more can be found in The Racetracks of America: From the Pre-Civil War Days to the 21st Century.

The 440-page work, created in partnership with the Keeneland Library, is part of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame’s year-long 75th anniversary celebration. If ever there was a book meant for a coffee table, this is it.

Editor Brien Bouyea, Hall of Fame and communications director at the museum, worked with 35 contributors that represent a Who’s Who of the nation’s turf writers. Jay Hovdey, winner of multiple Eclipse Awards and a columnist for BloodHorse, wrote the foreword. The Spa City–based Bouyea, naturally, wrote the 10-page section on Saratoga, the country’s oldest major racecourse that’s still in operation today.

For Bouyea, who also serves as the sports editor of this very magazine, the opportunity to tell the story of almost 80 US racetracks was a labor of love. “Thoroughbred racing in America goes back before football, baseball, basketball, and any of the major sports today,” he says. “It’s kind of fascinating to dive into that history about what racing was like, what breeding was like, what the different tracks were like.”

Bouyea’s research included a trip to Keeneland Library, where he pored over thousands of images to supplement the Museum’s collection. “The visuals in this book were just as important as the narratives,” he says. “We wanted to give people a sense of time and place.”

As for answers to the questions about Morrissey’s nickname, pre–Churchill Downs Louisville, and the Belmont in the Bronx, you’ll have to pick up a copy of the new book and find them for yourself. Buy one at the National Museum of Racing or many stores throughout Saratoga Springs.