Horse Tracks

By Eric Simon

March 16, 2026

This is a pre-order. Copies will ship in March 2027.

Captivating snapshots of the people, places, and animals of horse racing culture. 

Eric Simon’s vibrant photography documents decades of racetrack culture across the country—from the colorful jockey silks to the thunder of hooves, from backside workers to bettors. Accompanying essays explore a day at the track and examine the quirks of tracks large and small, famous and lesser known. 

Long a part of American culture, horse racing today is at a crossroads. Racetracks are closing or adding casinos, and attendance is flagging, especially among younger generations, though some tracks are finding ways to nurture their communities and remain viable entertainment hubs. Time will tell what happens to horse racing in the years to come. Whether the sport finds its footing or dwindles further, Horse Tracks offers an insider’s view of its highs and lows across the past four decades.

Eric Simon is a Colorado‑based writer whose work explores the fragile, often vanishing threads of American cultural life. After a career in forensic systems engineering, he turned to narrative nonfiction, bringing the same precision and curiosity to the stories of people and communities that rarely receive careful attention. His essays and book projects examine how traditions endure, how they disappear, and what they reveal about the places we call home.

In Horse Tracks, he traces the human side of a sport in decline, recovering the voices of handicappers, trainers, bettors, and dreamers who built a world that is now slipping into memory. His work is driven by a belief that ordinary people and overlooked histories deserve the same narrative dignity as the celebrated and the famous.

Eric has lived in Colorado since 1987 and continues to document the region’s cultural landscape through writing, photography, and historical research.

ISBN: 9781540270344 | 11 x 8 1/2 | Hardback