The Eighty-Dollar Champion

I just came across this story, and knew it was a piece of history that needed to be “undusted”!  The Eighty-Dollar Champion, having inspired both two books and a film, was a white plow horse on the way to the slaughterhouse at the end of an unsuccessful auction.  Harry De Leyer, a Dutch immigrant to New York who fled the Nazi invasion of his home country, was running late to the auction due to a flat tire along the way.  When he got there, he and the white horse looked at each other through the slats of the slaughterhouse truck, and he knew that horse was special.  He bought the horse with the last eighty dollars he had, and the rest is, as they say, history.  Together, they broke into the world run by the wealthy elite owning thoroughbreds, and went on to beat all odds and all competitors.  To see a short trailer for the film, please click on the image below of Snowman and Harry.

Also, please check out Elizabeth Lett’s best-selling book, “The Eighty-Dollar Champion:  Snowman, The Horse That Inspired a Nation“, and click on her name to see her sharing the history of her book!