As the home of the Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs is the epicenter of Kentucky’s equine heritage and the most storied racetrack in the world. More than a thousand people come to work on the backside of the track on any given day during a racing meet. Most of the hot walkers, grooms, exercise riders, jockeys, and other equine workers who dedicate their lives and careers to horse racing will never stand in the winner’s circle, but each of them is a member of a rich community with a long and storied tradition, one that most of us have never known.   Better Lucky Than Good: Tall Tales and Straight Talk from the Backside of the Track will change that. Louisville Story Program took three years to engage backside workers and residents of South Louisville in conversations and a collaboration that has led to the most caring, in-depth look into the lives and stories of equine workers ever published. Authored by those who live and work on the backside, Better Lucky Than Good represents the first time in the history of American thoroughbred racing that equine workers have documented their own lives and experiences for the public.   Joe Manning helped establish Louisville Story Program in 2013 and worked as an instructor and editor before he came on board full time as the role of Deputy Director in 2016. Joe was a Jackson Fellow of Creative Writing at Hollins University's prestigious MFA program where he focused on nonfiction. He's published award-winning essays, columns, and features for The Louisville Eccentric Observer and The Louisville Paper, has written for Fjords, theRS500.com, and Oxford American. Joe's first collection of single-topic essays, Certain Relevant Passages, was published in 2017 by Dock Street Press. In 2018 Joe was awarded the Kentucky Arts Council's Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship.