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What: “From the Desert to the Derby”

Author: Jason Levin

Publisher: Daily Racing Form Press

Price: $24.94

The idea behind this book was to take the reader inside the ruling family of Dubai’s billion-dollar quest to win the Kentucky Derby.

Jason Levin undertook this ambitious project when he found he had time on his hands after being among the staff members who were laid off from FoxSports.com. Levin, the Web site’s national horse racing writer, had been working on a story about Godolphin Racing, the operation run by Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.

The story evolved into this book, which is well-researched and clearly written. But it doesn’t deliver on its promise of a look inside the Maktoum family.

Levin, not given the access he had hoped for, was left on the outside and had to rely heavily on what already had been written.

The result is too much horse racing play-by-play and not enough from Sheikh Mohammed, who isn’t heard from until the final chapter. Levin finally was able to talk with him at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Initially the book is compelling because it begins at last year’s Keeneland sales in Kentucky. The second day of the Keeneland affair was Sept. 11.

As the tragic events of that day unfold, much of the attention is focused on Sheikh Mohammed, and not just because he spends millions of dollars on his quest to win the Kentucky Derby.

He also is the defense minister of the United Arab Emirates and a powerful voice in the Arab world.

But just as Levin grabs the reader, he loses his focus and goes with too much bland historical material.