Posted: 09/06/2010

Meet local author Thomas Foley for a book signing at Greetings & Readings of Hunt Valley on Saturday, October 16 from 3 to 5 p.m. and pick up an autographed copy of The Simple Game: An Irish Jockey's Memoir. Author Thomas Foley is the father of three boys and currently lives on a farm outside Baltimore, Maryland. He is an author, an actor, a Thoroughbred horse trainer and a professional jockey. In his first full year of riding as a steeplechase jockey, he was the leading money-winning apprentice. The Simple Game: An Irish Jockey's Memoir is his first published book. He plays the role of Jimmy Gaffney in Walt Disney Studios' upcoming feature film Secretariat. The foreword to the book is by Otto Thorwarth. He co-stars in the movie with Diane Lane and John Malkovich. In 1997, seventeen-year-old Thomas Foley immigrated to the United States from Ireland. Like others before him, he came with nothing more in his pocket than a prayer and a dream. His dream was to become a professional jockey. He arrived in America full of wonder and romanticized notions of a sport he cherished and revered. But as he soon discovered, the world of professional horse racing was not a place where boys with romanticized visions lasted for very long. To survive in this world, young Thomas Foley would have to leave the boy behind. He did. Eventually, he succeeded as a jump and flat jockey, but he also developed an eating disorder, became addicted to sleeping pills, and in the process lost his family and his passion for the sport of horse racing, and horses themselves. The Simple Game: An Irish Jockey's Memoir is the painful and deeply revelling account of his struggle to find his way back home; back to the boy who understood that the game was simple; as simple as you're willing to make it. Order The Simple Game: An Irish Jockey's Memoir before author Thomas Foley's signing at Greetings & Readings on Saturday, October 16 and request a personalized, autographed copy from the event below at no extra charge.