About the Librarian

Avalyn Hunter (“Mahubah”) has been studying Thoroughbred pedigrees and racing history for nearly thirty years. A regular contributor to The Blood-Horse, Market Watch, and Owner-Breeder International magazines, she is the author of well over a hundred articles on Thoroughbred racing and breeding. She has also published the award-winning fiction stories “The Passing of the Torch” and “The Foundation,” both prizewinners in the Thoroughbred Times Biennial Fiction Contest.

Avalyn’s first book. American Classic Pedigrees 1914-2002, was published in May 2003 by Eclipse Press. Covering the race records, antecedents, and descendants of the winners of the American Triple Crown races plus the Kentucky Oaks and Coaching Club American Oaks for fillies, the massive work took some two years to write and has received excellent reviews for both the quality and scope of the information presented and the readability of the text. Her second book, The Kingmaker: How Northern Dancer Founded a Racing Dynasty, is slated for release by Eclipse Press in April 2006.

A former Air Force officer, Avalyn is a graduate of Vanderbilt University (B.A, psychology) and Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville (M.A., clinical psychology) and has worked as a mental health professional since 1993. She lives in Florida with her husband and two children.