The Sport of Kings

The Sport of Kings is a novel by American author C.E. Morgan, first published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in 2016. A sweeping multigenerational family saga set in Kentucky and Ohio, it tells the story of Henry Forge and his descendants as they grapple with a rapidly changing America, the lingering effects of slavery, and their passion for horseracing. The Sport of Kings was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

The book begins in the middle part of the twentieth century, as Henry Forge grows up on his family’s farm in Paris, Kentucky. Henry kills a neighbor's cow by lighting a firecracker beneath it. This enrages Henry's domineering father, John Henry. He ties Henry to a post and beats him bloody.

Under the withering gaze of his father, Henry grows up with an affection for horseracing—again, to the anger to John Henry. John Henry says that horseracing is only for low-class people pretending to be high-class.



When Henry is a teen, he hears that his mother, Lavinia, is having an affair with the family's black servant, Filip. Shortly thereafter, Filip disappears, and Lavinia goes away on her own. Upon her return, John Henry rapes her.

With John Henry's death in the 1960s, Henry inherits the farm. He transforms it into a racehorse breeding facility, both to pursue his own dreams and to rebel against the father he could never challenge in life.

Henry largely raises his daughter, Henrietta, as a single father after his wife, Judith, leaves him shortly after Henrietta's birth. Though she is initially interested in the science her father lovingly teaches her, Henrietta turns aloof during her teenage years and starts sleeping with the men who work on the farm.



Meanwhile, one of the horses Henry breeds comes in second in the Kentucky Derby. Instead of viewing this as a triumph, Henry sees it as evidence of his shortcomings. A flawless horse, he thinks, would have placed first.

As Henrietta grows up, she starts sleeping with men outside the farm, conquests she meets at local bars. But she still manages her daily responsibilities on the farm. One day, she interviews a young African American man named Allmon Shaughnessy, who has remarkable skill in working with horses.

After a rough childhood in Cincinnati, in which his white father abandons him, Allmon joins a gang. He uses his drug-dealing money to get medical help for his chronically ill mother, Marie. It's not enough, however, and Marie eventually dies.



Allmon goes to live in Lexington, Kentucky, with Sophia, a distant relation. After stealing Sophia's car and attempting to go to Chicago to find his father, the police pull Allmon over and find drugs in the vehicle. He goes to prison, which quells his wild side and introduces him to the prison-run horse program.

Henrietta and Allmon begin an intense and secret love affair. Allmon doesn't know that Henry is also sleeping with Henrietta. Based on Henry's understanding of Darwin, he believes that inbreeding will create a truly superior human being. Upon discovering she is pregnant, Henrietta doesn't know whether the father is Allmon or Henry.

When Henry learns of Allmon and Henrietta's affair, he agrees to a deal with Allmon: Stop sleeping with Henrietta, and Henry will give him a portion of the winning racehorse Hellsmouth's future winnings.



Henrietta dies in childbirth; her baby is clearly brown-skinned, making him Allmon's son.

The story of the racehorse Hellsmouth and his early victories are told; however, by the time Hellsmouth is two years old, Henry focuses more on raising his grandchild, Samuel, about whom he has still not informed Allmon. In the meantime, Allmon fears he is ill with the same sickness that killed Marie.

Hellsmouth, however, continues to thrive and is slated to compete in the Kentucky Derby. A journalist comes to the farm to interview Henry for the occasion. She reveals herself as the farm's former cook, Maryleen, who worked at the house when Henry was a boy. She tells Henry and Allmon that John Henry murdered the servant Filip.



Shortly thereafter, Hellsmouth wins the Kentucky Derby.

The final chapter takes place during the evening after the Kentucky Derby in which Hellsmouth was victorious. At a press conference, Henry announces that he is retiring Hellsmouth immediately. He then returns Hellsmouth to the farm, with Allmon in pursuit.

Allmon is still struggling with a mystery illness, but he is too poor to see a doctor. Meanwhile, Henry's retirement of Hellsmouth cuts off a huge part of Allmon's income. By this point, Allmon knows that Samuel belongs to him. In a rage and desperate, Allmon goes to the farm, where he shoots two horses and lets Hellsmouth free.



Then, Allmon pours gasoline around the house and calls for Henry and Samuel to come outside. They do, and he ties Henry to the same post John Henry tied him to when Henry was a boy. Allmon strikes the match and sets the house aflame, before pulling out a gun and killing himself.

In an epilogue, a trucker stops to give a hitchhiker a lift to Ohio. The hitchhiker looks a lot like Allmon.