SEABISCUIT
AN
ENTHRALLING
SPRING READ

By Helen Moreland

Seabiscuit — Three Men and a
Racehorse, by Laura
Hillenbrand.

“In 1938, near the end of a decade of
monumental turmoil, the year’s
number-one newsmaker was not
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Hitler, or
Mussolini. It wasn’t Pope Pius XI, nor
was it Lou Gehrig, Howard Hughes,
or Clark Gable. The subject of the
most newspaper column inches in
1938 wasn’t even a person. It was an
undersized, crooked-legged
racehorse named Seabiscuit.”

And so begins Seabiscuit — Three
men and a racehorse, Laura
Hillenbrand’s critically acclaimed
book about one of America’s heroes
and greatest champions of the turf —
and the people who shared the
spotlight with him.

Seabiscuit raced 89 times, for 33
wins, 15 seconds and 13 thirds. He
was named Horse of the Year in 1938
and beat War Admiral in arguably
the biggest thoroughbred match race
of all time. The public loved
Seabiscuit, a horse with many foibles
(from being a prolific sleeper to an
absolute glutton), and they proved it
with much higher attendances at
tracks when he was scheduled to race
— endearing the horse to racing
administrators.

This beautifully written book, as well
as being capable of engaging any
racing person, is also being credited
with attracting many new people to
racing. The book is unique for its
type, in apparently representing the
views and actions of most people
involved in a fair, reasonable and
genuine way.

In writing the book, Hillenbrand
painstakingly researched issues such
as the welfare of jockeys and horses
and the administration of racing
during that period, which has
resulted in fascinating anecdotes
about America’s racing past, both
negative and positive.

Her exemplary research into
Seabiscuit, his owners Charles and
Marcela Howard, his trainer Tom
Smith and jockeys Red Pollard and
George Woolf has resulted in detailed
information about the management of
the horse — from treatments for his
injuries to the complicated regime
implemented by Smith to control the
horse’s temperament (from knocking
down stable walls to the acquisition
of Seabiscuit’s own menagerie which
included three dogs, a monkey, and
his pony Pumpkin!).

Seabiscuit’s preparations were
troubled by injury and his
programming was hindered by track
conditions and the weights allocated
to him by handicappers. This put the
owners and trainer of the horse in
difficult positions at numerous times,
simply because there was so much
public demand for the horse.

Hillenbrand’s reporting of the
handling of the media by those

associated with Seabiscuit should be
of interest to modern day owners and
trainers of racehorses who would
relate to the great conflict between
Charles Howard’s attempts to raise
the profile of the horse and appease
the press, and the creativity
displayed by Tom Smith in avoiding
members of the press seeing
Seabiscuit at work.

In addition to a PBS documentary for
television, Universal Studios is now
producing the movie Seabiscuit: An
American Legend to be released in
2003. Tobey Maguire of Spider Man,
The Cider House Rules, and
Pleasantville fame, will play
Seabiscuit’s main jockey Red Pollard
whilst Jeff Bridges takes the role of his
owner Charles Howard.

The movie will be partly filmed at
Kentucky’s Keeneland Racecourse
and California’s Santa Anita
Racecourse and is certain to be a hit
— but as usual the book will
probably be better, so try and read it
before the movie is released (put it on
your Christmas wish-list if you haven’t
read it by then)!

Of interest is Laura Hillenbrand’s own
battle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
that often leaves her housebound. For
New York Times best-selling book,
Seabiscuit — Three men and a
racehorse, Hillenbrand has been
awarded the Turf Publicists of
America’s annual “Big Sport of
Turfdom” award and the 2001 William
Hill Sports Book of the Year Award in
Great Britain.

With racing comebacks in the same
vein as Champions and more twists
than a Dick Francis novel, Seabiscuit
is racing literature at its best, frank
and open about some of the negative
aspects of racing, but also inspiring
to all who dream of one day being
associated with a champion.

Fourth Estate
A division of HarperCollins Publishers
London 2001