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An American Legend
by Laura HillenbrandHillenbrand brilliantly re-creates a universal underdog story, one that proves life is a horse race.
Seabiscuit was one of the most electrifying and popular attractions in
sports history and the single biggest newsmaker in the world in 1938,
receiving more coverage than FDR, Hitler, or Mussolini. But his success was a
surprise to the racing establishment, which had written off the crooked-legged
racehorse with the sad tail. Three men changed Seabiscuit’s fortunes:
Charles Howard was a onetime bicycle repairman who introduced the automobile
to the western United States and became an overnight millionaire. When he
needed a trainer for his new racehorses, he hired Tom Smith, a mysterious
mustang breaker from the Colorado plains. Smith urged Howard to buy Seabiscuit
for a bargain-basement price, then hired as his jockey Red Pollard, a failed
boxer who was blind in one eye, half-crippled, and prone to quoting passages
from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Over four years, these unlikely partners survived a
phenomenal run of bad fortune, conspiracy, and severe injury to transform
Seabiscuit from a neurotic, pathologically indolent also-ran into an American
sports icon.
Author Laura Hillenbrand brilliantly re-creates a universal underdog story,
one that proves life is a horse race.
If you liked Seabiscuit, try these:
by Richard Askwith
Published 2021
The courageous and heartbreaking story of a Czech countess who defied the Nazis in a legendary horse race.
by Daniel James Brown
Published 2014
For readers of Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit and Unbroken, the dramatic story of the American rowing team that stunned the world at Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympics
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