Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #208924 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 453 pages

Customer Reviews

Seabiscuit
If you love horses and have even a little bit of interest in racing this book is one you will thoroughly enjoy.
You feel like you are living all the hopes and fears of the characters, and when the races are on, you find you just cant read fast enough to keep up with The Biscuit! - you certainly cant put the book down mid race!
- I hope the film is true to the book, - cant wait to see it.
. Buy this book - you'll love it!

Stunning
Quite simply this is the best sports related book I have ever had the pleasure to pick up. The level of research required for a book where the major players are now deceased could easily leave the impression that the author has poetic licence to write whatever they want. This is never the case with this masterpiece.

I had never heard of Seabiscuit despite him being an American legend, but my interest was raised after by chance reading a small review in a Sunday paper. The portrayal of Red Pollard, a one eyed jockey of limited ability struggling to come to terms with numerous personal demons, and the horses trainer Tom Smith, a misunderstood genius, is breathtaking. The prose is such that this is impossible to put down. I found myself willing SeaBiscuit on in his battle with War Admiral and even now find myself running over my images of this race at sometime innoportune moments such is the fantastic way the author conveys this equine battle in print.
Basically if you are reading this just click on the buy button, wait for the postman to deliver, lend the television to a neighbour (you won't be needing it) and feast on this incredible sporting odyssey.

One Fine Job of Reporting
It's hard to determine the true hero of this book. Is it the taciturn trainer, Tom Smith, who took a colt the world's leading trainer (the still-revered Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons) couldn't truly fathom and turn the reject into a champion racehorse? Is it Charles Howard, the car salesman turned millionaire who devoted so much of his time, money and energy to his beloved horse, never second-guessing his trainer and remaining ever steadfast in every adversity, including the death of his son? Is it Seabiscuit himself, the reluctant claimer who went on to a superstardom that matched or superseded anything later achieved by Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods? Perhaps it is Johnny (Red) Pollard, the jockey who emerged from depths about as low as any human being can go to the winner's circle in America's most prestigious races? All of these would be strong candidates, but my Eclipse Award goes to Laura Hillenbrand, for rising up out of her sickbed often enough and long enough to accomplish something just as miraculous as the feats that Seabiscuit and team pulled off.

Take it from someone who spent six years of his life as an observer and worker at backstretches all around the US. I have held jobs from hot walker to trainer, at venues such as Belmont Park, Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Bowie, The Fairgrounds, Monmouth Park, etc. I also had a chance to observe some excellent horsemen for whom I worked, including Frank Whitely, Elliot Burch, Woody Stephens, and others. I had the pleasure to meet and talk with Alfred Vanderbilt, one of the characters in this story, as he was an owner of one of the trainers for whom I groomed horses. I've seen most of what the backstretch has to offer, from the lowliest stable-hand at a rickety bullring track in New Mexico, to the richest owner in the world purchasing horses at the Keeneland Yearling Sale. So perhaps I feel myself qualified, though it is hardly necessary, to say that Laura Hillenbrand has written the book I wish I had had the talent and fortitude to write. Her book, more than any other I have ever read, captures life on the backstretch as it is, was, and ever shall be. She has gotten to the essence of horse-racing, capturing perfectly the allure, the dreams, the utter exhilaration and despair that unfolds day in and day out behind the scenes at racetracks the world over. She has done this despite severe physical infirmities that would have stopped us lesser humans in our tracks. Reading this book left me feeling as though I had just won the pick-four at Hollywood Park. Hats off and thrown high into the air to Laura Hillenbrand for an accomplishment that will be next to impossible to ever match.