They're Off and Running: The Life of Bill Mills By Cathleen Mills Whitlatch, with Bryan Alexander Before the bell rang and the hooves thundered down the track, Bill Mills stood at the gate-steady, focused, and ready. As one of the most respected racetrack starters in North America, Bill launched thousands of races across a lifetime spent behind the scenes of the sport of kings. But his story begins long before that. Born in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl era, Bill's early life was defined by grit. He rode bulls for five dollars, galloped wild colts in Tijuana, boxed in backroom cafés, and built racetrack starting gates from scratch using salvaged metal and raw instinct. From the handmade tracks of rural America to the gleaming new Hipódromo de las Américas in Mexico City during World War II, Bill was always in motion-always starting over. Told through the voices of his daughter and grandson, They're Off and Running is a multi-generational biography that explores not only the life of a quiet pioneer in horse racing but also the emotional cost of a life lived in motion. While Bill earned respect across the racing world, his family often felt his absence. And yet, in his final years, he reconciled with his daughter, forming a deep bond that healed what time had stretched. When his first wife lay in a coma, Bill took her hand and said, "Let's go back to Mexico and start all over." It was the love story beneath the legacy-and the heartbeat of this book. For fans of horse racing, Americana, or quietly extraordinary lives, They're Off and Running is a rich, emotional portrait of a man who built his legacy not in the winner's circle-but in the space before the race began. A story of grit, grace, and the quiet man behind the starting bell.