Seabiscuit: An American Legend

Reads like a page turning novel. Well written, not a slack moment.

Laura Hillenbrand is so masterful at this type of historical storytelling. I could hardly put the book down and her descriptions of the races practically had me tensed up and sweating (in a good way). The extraordinary amount of research that went into this book just astonishes me but it's Hillenbrand's skill at her craft that made the reading so enjoyable. Already recommended to a friend. Thanks, Laura!

Even if you have no interest in horses or horse racing, this book is so wonderful it will grab at your heart and leave it thumping as you ride with the jockeys on the incomparable Seabiscuit. You'll find the horrible existence of the jockeys before there was medical insurance or protective headwear appalling, but there's something magical about these guys and horses- they know their horses as well as a modern fellow would know his car. George Woolf, one of the greatest jockeys who ever lived rode a horse as though he and the animal were one, a centaur. Author Hillenbrand's descriptions of how it must feel to have a 40 mile an hour machine under you will put you right in the saddle. You know Seabiscuit is going to beat War Admiral when the two are matched up for the famous Pimlico race but the author gives a thrilling description of that pivotal event and you almost feel sorry for War Admiral who did the best he could, both horses setting track speed records. But Seabiscuit sort of thumbed his nose at the Admiral, spooking him, and pulled away.The humans in the story are no less compelling. Charles Howard the former bicycle repairer who became a millionaire and sentimental owner of Seabiscuit. Tom Smith the trainer, who virtually never smiled, never said much but knew the soul and heart of a horse and often slept right in the stall with his charges. Seabiscuit was not only small for a thoroughbred, he had knobby knees, a scruffy tail, had a bad temper and given to sulking and acting up. Smith had an instinct. He saw in Seabiscuit what a horse whisperer sees- he saw the power.Smith turned Seabiscuit into a horse of a different color. The two jockeys who rode the Biscuit- George Woolf and Red Pollard, played him like a violin. But the price was high: Red was frightfully injured in accidents on the track and had been blinded in one eye by a rock one of the horses kicked up during a race. (Now of course jockeys wear protective helmets). Red, although his leg had been shattered, and earlier his chest caved in by a horse that fell on him, rode Seabiscuit to victory in the Santa Anita Handicap. Woolf, who was a diabetic in the days before the disease could be controlled, apparently fainted while riding in a race, slipped from the saddle and fell to the ground. He died the next day.There was romance in being a top jockey but also a horrible reality and enormous danger. The sport of kings took a huge toll in the days before insurance and protective gear. Nowadays a little of the romance is gone but this splendid book will put the romance right in your lap.

A story about a horse that celebrates the triumph of the human spirit, "Seabiscuit" is almost too good to be true. Yet Laura Hillenbrand's 2001 book about an ungainly thoroughbred who would win 33 races and upend a sport comes with generous footnotes that tether it to reality.Even so, the book starts with a bit of a whopper: The claim Seabiscuit was a bigger newsmaker in 1938 than FDR or Hitler. Snopes.com picks this one apart, though it doesn't change a jot of my admiration for the book or its author. Some authors work with dry data and musty factoids. Hillenbrand resurrects passions and reassembles the texture of the times from living memory. You may get a tall tale or two, but more important is an immersive feeling of what it was like to have been a witness to something so ridiculously grand and heart-tugging.As much as the book is about the horse, it's even more about his most regular rider, the half-blind, busted-down, habitually unlucky Red Pollard. When Pollard and the Biscuit came together, history was made, and made again. Hillenbrand puts you with Pollard in the saddle."With the crowd on its feet, Pollard spread himself flat over Seabiscuit's withers, reins clutched in his left hand, right hand pressed flat to Seabiscuit's neck, head turned and eyes fixed on Professor Paul's broad blaze," she writes.The fact Pollard suffered so much to get where he was comes across vividly. Hillenbrand herself suffered from a decades-long chronic exhaustive condition while writing this, and seems to channel her experience in Pollard especially, "sinking downward through his life with the pendulous motion of a leaf falling through still air." It accounts for some undeniable lack of critical reserve, but at the same time, her poetic turns of phrase and ability to lay out the technical dimensions of the sport and of Seabiscuit's abilities (including the horse's unorthodox, swivel-legged gait) break through the jargony boundaries of horseracing in high, readable style.About the most difficulty I've had reading this book (three times already) is from the fear of getting my heart broken, even when I think I know what happens next. Seabiscuit was no natural world-beater; he lost to more than a few horses and was an underdog from his earliest racing days to his final run. Pollard got injured so badly on a racetrack he was thought to be at death's door, then went back only to suffer another catastrophic injury that everyone but Pollard thought had ended his career."Getting back on the horse" is a common term these days; Pollard's story gives it deeper meaning. In Seabiscuit he found his ticket to glory, with Hillenbrand you get to share his ride.

I came to this after watching the fine 2003 film version directed by Gary Ross that was based on this book.A marvellously detailed and engrossing book, Hillenbrand does a fine job of contextualising this remarkable story within its time frame; it is not just a study of the lives of three men and a racehorse – it describes the racing industry of the day and it`s place in 1930s America, a whole detailed, panoramic background against which the drama (human and equine) is played out.If anyone had said I would be enthralled by a book about horse-racing I would have laughed, but this is a gripping and utterly mesmeric tale that is both uplifting and hugely informative.A fine work of historical and biographical research and an exemplary piece of writing that entirely engages the reader in it spell – a hugely recommendable book.

Charles Howard was good at spotting opportunities and made a fortune as the General Motors automobile distributor for the Western United States in the 1920's. He also made the most unlikely choice of Tom Smith as trainer for his newly established racing stable.Smith was 56 when Howard met him and had spent his life around horses, cattle ranching, taming mustangs for the British cavalry, circus shows, small time racing but by 1934 he was out of money and he lived in the same stall as his only horse.Charles Howard decided that the uncommunicative Smith was the right person for his project, and Smith travelled round the tracks for him looking at hundreds of cheap horses until he found the well bred loser "Seabiscuit".He saw something there, and together with jockey Red Pollard they went on to win everything in American racing.Laura Hillenbrand obviously loves horses and has written a great story about the almost magical rise of "Seabiscuit".

It has been a long time since a book has so gripped me. I am an avid book reader but mostly read Christian non-fiction but, having seen the film I was intrigued as to what the whole story would be like. I cannot begin to find all the superlative words except to say I was not disappointed in any way, even the races themselves were written in such a way that you could truly see what was going on and you found yourself tensing as you read the description. The ups and downs of the life of this horse and his jockey, trainer and owner are almost unbelievable set, as they are against the background of America in depression and leading up almost to the point of America becoming involved in the second world war. A must read for anybody, you do not need to love horses, or racing, just human beings and what they have to overcome.

A truly fitting tribute to one of the greatest racehorses of all time. A marvellous insight into the three men in his life, and into Seabiscuit's own character. Highly entertaining throughout.

The research that has gone into this book is extraordinary. No stone unturned . It vividly brings alive the harsh realities of race riding in this era. The descriptions of the races and accidents are heartthumping and tear jerking. How Destiny threw together, owner,trainer,horse and jockey seem a work of fiction ,but it's fact,fact burned in history ,sporting history that will echo forever. Sublime.