Seabiscuit+an+American+Legend+by+Will+R.

__Journal #2__ Pages Read: 44-89 Very soon after the death of his son Frankie Charles Howard began to lose his love for automobiles and instead, sparked an interest in the sport of horse racing. many people appreciated the sport but, during the height of the prohibition; not many people followed the sport because gambling and drinking was illegal. Of course, there were ways of going around the prohibition and people attended undercover race tracks. Topea race track was the most famous of these race tracks, where gambling and drinking continued to occur even during the height of prohobition. Charles Howard constructed many racing tracks, stables, and employed staff to care for and train his horses into racing condition. He dreamed of having the fastest and strongest horse in the sport. One day, Charles came across a horse named seabiscuit and saw the unlimited potential the trusty steed possessed. He purchased Seabiscuit, and employed a Person named Tom smith to train Seabiscuit. I was very pleased with this section of the book and enjoyed reading the illegal events that went on during prohibition. I also greatly enjoyed reading about seabiscuit at a young age and how different he was than other horses. Seabiscuit truly was a different horse as he would do many unusual things. For example, Seabiscuit would sleep lying down during the night for hourse on end, where as; other horses sleep in sporadic events standing up. So far the book has been quite enjoyable. I especially enjoyed the parts that described how people would get around prohibtion and gamble at undercover race tracks. Another part I relished was when Hillenbrand described how Seabiscuit's demeanor and instincts were different which, therefore; set him apart from other horses. The book, so far, has been very readable and enjoyable. __Journal #3__ Pages read: 90-149 __ ﻿ __ At first, Seabiscuit didn't have the fondness of racing like other horses. He also didn't have the training methods other horses had. To correct this problem, Charles Howard hired Tom Smith to train Seabiscuit into racing shape. In practices, Charles told Tom to use a whip on seabiscuit, which was never used on other horses during practice. Charles idea was to bring the inner beast out of Seabiscuit and, To howard's liking Seabiscuit showed how fast he really was. Seabiscuit beat the fastest horse in the stable by a longshot. After that people started to take notice in Seabiscuit and regarded him as a fine racing horse. Many people disregarded seabiscuit due to his shortness and crooked legs, but Howard saw the potential in him and nurtured seabiscuit until he was in shape to race.  As i've said before, I am greatly enjoying this novel of an underdog's struggle into greatness. It represent the courage and motivation of seabiscuit and in some ways gives me inspiration. I now see why this book was made into an award-winning movie. ** ﻿References: **  -Pollard  -Tom smith  -David Alexander  -The washington Post __Journal #4__ Pages Read: 150-327 Seabiscuit was an unusually peculiar horse. Unlike other horses Seabiscuit was short with crooked legs. He often slept lying down because he was unable to lock his knees and stand straight up due to his crooked legs. Tom Smith saw the potential being displayed in Seabiscuit that no one else seemed to have noticed. Everyone wrote Seabiscuit off early in his racing career because he was a younger horse, he was shorter, and he had crooked legs. Even thought Seabiscuit was a lazy horse, he could run extremely fast when he desired to do so. The horse possessed a god given gift of running at extremely fast speeds. For one, Seabiscuit ran a quarter mile in 22.5 seconds on a track during the 1930s. By today’s standards that is considered very fast even with all the advancements made during the past 80 years. When everything was said and done, Seabiscuit earned a whopping $437,730. He was literally worth his weight in money. I enjoyed this book cover to cover and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good book to read. I liked reading about sea biscuit’s major races and how he smashed track records. I also like how everyone doubted Seabiscuit, yet, he still went on to become the greatest. All in all, this is a great novel. **References:** -Santa Anita -Kentucky Derby -Tom Smith -Charles Howard -Pollard ||
 * **__Seabiscuit an American Legend__** [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7f/Seabiscuit_An_American_Legend.jpg/125px-Seabiscuit_An_American_Legend.jpg]] __Journal #1__ Pages read: 1-43 Charles Howard was a relentless person that had ambitions far greater than anyone could imagine and was always pursuing to become the best. Along the way of his rise to the top he experienced many things like Enlisting in the army to his beloved son Frankie passing away in a tragic truck accident. When Howard was young he enlisted in cavalry during the Spanish-American war. He never got out of the cavalry camp and after his discharge from the armed services he married a girl named Fannie May. They moved to New York and he got a job working with bicycles. Not too long after he had two sons to support. In 1903 his ambitions drove him to the brink forcing him to leave his family and everything else behind, hop on a train and ride it all the way to San Francisco and With him he brought 21 cents and not a penny more. He took notice to new contraptions called automobiles and soon invested his time and money into becoming involved in the industry. <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">While reading this book I felt excited and enjoyed the up-beat tempo. I especially enjoyed to read all of the side stories that are core background knowledge to the story making it that much more enjoyable. For example, I liked Reading About the San Francisco fire and how they couldn't use horses to stop the fire but cars, therefore people started to change their transportation ways from horse and buggey to automobiles. Another one of my more favorable parts of the book is the factual history the book that was recognized, and how the author would explain the impact it had on the Horse racing during the early 1900s.These reference points are for people to reseach key topics in the book to get a better understanding of the novel and enjoy it to it's fullest. <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">**References:** <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">-General Motors early 1900s <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">[|-Prohibition] <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">-Horse Training <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">-San Francisco Fire
 * References:[[image:http://www.canadianhorseracinghalloffame.com/jockeys/images/John_Pollard_08-2.jpg align="right" caption="John Pollard Seabiscuit's Jockey"]]** **-**bootlegging [[image:http://ec2-184-73-243-168.compute-1.amazonaws.com/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/seabiscuit_smith.jpg align="left" caption="Tom Smith: Seabiscuit's Trainer"]]-Seabiscuit -Undercover race tracks -Topea Race track