![]() Finally, Charles Howard challenges the owner of War Admiral, whose horse is the greatest thoroughbred of the day and a Triple Crown winner, to a race against his Seabiscuit. Smith works wonders, and Seabiscuit starts to win. He hires Red Pollard, a jockey who has had his share of hard knocks, to ride Seabiscuit. ![]() Smith proceeds to turn Seabiscuit around. On a trip east, Smith finds Seabiscuit, a horse with a good pedigree but a lousy attitude and an uninspiring record. On the advice of friends, he hires a taciturn veteran named Tom Smith to be his trainer. It begins with a man named Charles Howard, who becomes rich with one of the very first automobile dealerships in California. The story takes place mostly in the late 1930s, during the heart of the depression in America. For those of you who haven’t read the book (or seen the movie), let me quickly summarize. If you’re like me, there was such a time. You may have heard his name in passing, but you don’t know when he lived and where he raced and why you’ve heard his name. ![]() ![]() You are blissfully ignorant of anything and everything about a horse named Seabiscuit. You know nothing of this story, or of any of the characters. I think we all ought to put ourselves in the place when this wildly successful, critically acclaimed book did not exist at all. I think it might be helpful for all writers to go backwards when looking at Laura Hillenbrand’s superb book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend. ![]()
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