THE JOCKEY CLUB’S ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THOROUGHBRED RACING IN AMERICA; Edward L. Bowen; Little, Brown and Co., New York; $60.

Readers with a fancy for horses, especially thoroughbreds, will find a treasure in “The Jockey Club’s Illustrated History of Thoroughbred Racing in America.”

The Jockey Club was founded in 1894 to give racing a national organization to provide uniform rules from state to state, to register horses and to keep the sport honest. With the help of dedicated and often rich supporters, the club has been a success. Author Edward L. Bowen has put together an informative history to celebrate the organization’s 100th anniversary.

The 224 pages of Bowen’s coffee table offering contain scores of beautiful illustrations, from renditions of 19th century equine art to color photographs of more contemporary stars such as Secretariat, Affirmed and Alydar. And there are scenes from America’s colorful racing venues. There’s Churchill Downs on derby day, a painting of the stands at graceful Belmont Park, and a pastoral scene of the tree-shaded stables at Saratoga.

The text can be read in just two or three hours, but that doesn’t mean it’s not informative. From the match races arranged by country gentlemen of the 18th century and Civil War assaults on the horse population to the economic challenges of the 1990s, each era of American racing gets its due.

And racing’s problems aren’t hidden in hype. It’s an optimistic text, but it recognizes the challenges, some of which have followed racing throughout its history. For example, the sport has always been plagued by a kind of schizophrenic clientele. On the one hand, there are the rich, the ladies in fancy hats and other finery strolling in paddocks with captains of industry. On the other hand, there’s a soft underbelly of bookies and the desperate, who may like the sport, but like the gambling a lot more.

President Andrew Jackson was a great example of this duality. A lifelong rider and horse lover, he lost the 1824 election when opponents dubbed him a “horse-racer, gambler and brawler.”

After he won in 1828, he kept several racehorses in the White House stable, but he raced them under the name of A.J. Donelson. Everyone knew, however, that they belonged to the president.

Bowen provides many interesting anecdotes about the sport. In 1780 the first in a still-continuing line of derbies was held at Epsom in England. Why was it a derby? Lord Derby served as host of a party held for planners of the race. Sir Charles Bunbury, the most prominent race personality of the day, also attended the party. The race planners decided that the event should be named in honor of one of the two gentlemen. A coin was tossed and Derby won.

The name has been durable. If Bunbury had won, would the name have lasted as long? Would a national television audience tune in every first Saturday in May to watch the Kentucky Bunbury?

If such a short text can drag, it does so during some long descriptions of thoroughbred pedigrees. But real race enthusiasts are as interested in pedigrees as the Daughters of the American Revolution. And with a price tag of $60, most of the buyers of the book will be real enthusiasts.

About 40 pages of appendices list all kinds of racing records, including time records for various length races, records of champions, earnings, leading trainers and jockeys, and even weight allowances for jockeys set by The Jockey Club.

Anyone who likes horses but isn’t enthusiastic enough to shell out $60 should talk to local librarians, encouraging them to acquire this history.