You may remember the story we brought you a couple weeks ago about Sanoma Blakeley and her horse, Goober. They improbably won the world’s most-prestigious endurance horse race — the Tevis Cup — back in 2019.
That story of the youngest female Tevis Cup champion and the horse she got for free on Craigslist is now a book — written by Sanoma — that is flying off shelves, bringing her newfound fame.
“Last week has been pretty crazy. It’s been it’s been a busy week,” Sanoma said.
The Cinderella story of Sanoma and Goober continues.
“It was so incredible to see the support of the community that had come out and really showed their support in buying my books, just telling me that they enjoyed my story, Goober’s story, that they were proud of us. And it was amazing to see this the community step up.”
RELATED: Sanoma and Goober: Terrebonne woman pens book on historic endurance race win
An outpouring of support from the community culminated at Barnes and Noble in Bend on Sept. 2 for Sonoma’s first-ever book signing.
So we came, you know, half an hour early, like 40 minutes early, and by the time it was supposed to start at 2:00, we had already sold out of books at Barnes and Noble.”
Not only did she sell out of books before the event officially started, she also sacrificed her last personal copy.
“Before you know it, we’re all out of books and somebody comes up that had driven aways and so I gave them my personal book. And so I’m completely out of books. I don’t even have a single of my own book in the house anywhere. Completely sold out. It’s kind of a weird feeling.”
The underdog story of the girl from Terrebonne and the horse from Craigslist struck a chord with viewers. It quickly became the most-watched video ever on Central Oregon Daily’s YouTube channel. 311,000 views as of Friday, from people all over the world.
“Have some friends down in Texas that have horses. And so my friend sends me my videos like, Hey, look what showed up on my YouTube recommended. I hadn’t told her about the video or anything it’s the that was crazy to just see how far it had gone.”
As for what’s next, more books, more signings and meeting, more fans.
“My publisher, they were all super excited about that and had sent me some more interviews. Coming up, some more book signing opportunities people were reaching out to see. I got a couple more book signings. We’re working on getting organized, so it’s been fun interaction.”
If you’d like to meet Sanoma, her next book signing will be Saturday, September 23 at 2:00 p.m. at the HeartSpace Horse Sanctuary in Redmond. Another one is set for Paulina Springs Books in Sisters on Oct. 26 at 6:30 p.m.
By the way, Sanoma’s not the only champion in the family. Her mother, Gabriela, won the Tevis Cup in 2022.
