My first experience with horse racing was when Nashua won the Preakness and the Belmont in 1955. He finished second to Swaps in the Kentucky Derby. As I recall, he was a beautiful, black stallion who looked like something out of the Arabian nights. I've loved horse racing ever since, although I'm too chicken to place a bet.

And so I decided to read Laura Hillenbrand's SEABISCUIT. I'd heard of the horse before, but I hadn't known he was a grandson of Man o' War. I had known, however, that War Admiral, Seabisbuit's nemesis, was Man o' War's son. I also didn't know that Seabiscuit was almost overlooked. "He was a rough-hewn, undersized horse with a sad little tail and knees that wouldn't straighten all the way. He lost his first sixteen races. Sonny Jim Fitzsimmons, his first trainer, thought the talent was there but that Seabiscuit was lazy. But that didn't stop him from racing the little horse thirty-five times as a two-year-old.
Three men salvaged Seabiscuit's career. Red Pollard, his jockey, who'd been sleeping in a stall. Tom Smith, the trainer known as "The Lone Plainsman", and Charles Howard, his owner, who introduced the automobile to the West. Ultimately, in the year 1938, Seabiscuit received more newspaper coverage than FDR or Hitler.

The story builds to a match race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral, who won the triple crown, but the true merit of the book is the inspiration this little animal provides. Nobody's ever really down and out. It's never too late. I also loved the little sidelights Hillenbrand reveals about racing. How Pollard won Seabiscuit's affection with a sugar cube, how all sorts of animals from German shepherds to three-legged cats were used as stablemates for horses, what a hard-scrabble existence jockeys lived during the Depression. Hillenbrand's been writing about thoroughbred racing since 1988. She really, really knows her stuff.

Dave Schwinghammer unconventional mystery, SOLDIER'S GAP, is available signed on Authorsden and at Amazon.com, new and used. Thank you.