Similar to its subject, the underdog Seabiscuit, the book, Seabiscuit, constantly surprises in many multi-dimensional ways. The best books about sports transcend sports and teach us about life. Seabiscuit is a fine example of that success.

Ms. Hillenbrand is a brilliant story teller, a fine writer, and has an eye for detail that brings you into the scenes she describes. You will feel yourself on Seabiscuit's back, looking for an opening to the rail, as you read the accounts of his most famous races.

If you do not know about Seabiscuit, this horse was an unlikely candidate for racing greatness. He was built all wrong, had a weird personality, and required unusual handling that few would provide. His career was heading nowhere when he was bought by the wealthy Charles Howard, a legendary automobile dealer in the western United Sates, on the advice of his obscure trainer, Tom Smith.

Finding ways to encourage Seabiscuit provides all of the intellectual excitement of a puzzle. Part of solving the puzzle required finding a very special jockey, one whose intelligence allowed him to be flexible. No one could have seemed less likely to play the role of top jockey based on his career track record than Red Pollard, who became the most effective jockey on Seabiscuit.

The triumverate combined to take advantage of Seabiscuit's "blistering speed, tactical versatility, and indomitable will." All of that training and work led up to a monumental match race against Triple Crown winner War Admiral in 1938. During that year, more inches of newspaper space in the United States were devoted to Seabiscuit than to FDR or Hitler.

The book has so many dimensions that they cannot all be addressed in this brief space. There is a lot of history. The biographies of the three main human characters tell you a lot about the development of the automobile, horse training, and the careers of jockeys. The colorful side stories are priceless, especially the ones in Tijuana around the old track there (where western racing migrated after betting was made illegal in California). The tales about the manure pile there are hilarious.

Each of the three main characters could have been the subject of his own very interesting biography, and much interesting detail is included here.

There is a lot of humor. You will especially like the cat-and-mouse games that Tom Smith played with the media so that they could not find out how fast Seabiscuit was running in his workouts.

The stories also involve a lot of diplomacy. The background leading up to the match race with War Admiral will remind you of the peace negotiations to end the Vietnam War.

Finally, there is much tragedy. Horseracing is dangerous (especially for the jockeys), and many paid the price is a variety of ways.

I cannot remember a sports book that captures so many dimensions of fine book writing and story telling. I was reminded of Death in the Afternoon by Ernest Hemingway as I read this book, but I think that Seabiscuit is the better book.

After you finish enjoying the book, look around you. Where is there hidden potential waiting to be tapped? Do you have a Seabiscuit-like opportunity you can develop? Probably.

Be flexible in looking for great potential!

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.

But the absolute highlights for me were Ms. Hillenbrand's colorful race descriptions. I was able to picture the running of each important race and these descriptions were suspenseful. In fact, Laura Hillenbrand's ability to keep the reader on the edge of one's seat is a welcome treat in non-fiction.

Now if you're just not at all interested in horses or horse racing, you're probably not even reading this, and if you are, I'd suggest getting the book from the library. But for the average person who has even the mildest interest in the topic, this is abolutely a rewarding read.