Tom Barnes's Blog: Tom's 'RocktheTower' Blog - Posts Tagged "seabiscuit"

Mine that Bird and the Belmont

It was announced over the weekend that Rachel Alexandra will not run in the Belmont Stakes this Saturday and thus will deny the match up most people had hoped for. Not to worry though, there will be a race on Saturday and Mine that Bird winner of the Kentucky Derby and second in the Preakness will be out to make a statement.
However, we’ll first have to get past the flap his jockey Borel caused with an over confident remark, ‘We’re going to win it, no questions asked,’ has piqued the pride of some horsemen and I suspect tactics born out of that irritation will show up on the racetrack Saturday afternoon.
That remark notwithstanding Borel has only ridden in seven races over the Belmont course winning just once.
Clair Novak interviewed Borel and they talked about his statement and some of the remarks regarding tactics to deny him a win. In her remarks after the interview she concluded that …’a confident reinsman is saying "bring it on."
"They're going to do their best, yes, you're supposed to, that's what it's about, but I don't have to be (on the rail)," he said.
And, at the end of the day — win, lose, or draw — all riders will just be doing their jobs.
"It's a horse race," Borel said. "I've been there, done that. And they've gotta ride their horse. But they're not going to stop me from wining."

The story of Mine that Bird reminds me of another small sized horse from an earlier generation. Seabiscuit was his name and he didn’t win all of his races either, but he won the hearts of Americans.

My review
Seabiscuit: The Little Horse With a Big Heart.

In her story of Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand has opened a unique window into the world of horse racing. The main characters are a quiet horse trainer named Tom Smith, the flamboyant horse owner Charles Howard, a horse named Seabiscuit and jockey’s Red Pollard and George Wolfe.
The owner and trainer first hooked up at the Aqua Caliente Race Track in Mexico. Smith and Howard were as opposite as night and day, but they made accommodations for each other’s differences and their relationship flourished. Once Smith worked the stable’s horses into racing condition they moved the operation north to Santa Anita and into Barn #38.
Their first season together was successful and near the end of the Santa Anita season Howard decided to move his stable to a small track in Michigan called the Detroit Fairgrounds. Smith was sent farther east to look for some mature horses to augment their juvenile stable. On June 29th at Boston’s Suffolk Downs a horse stopped in front of Tom Smith and for a long moment the two eyed one another. Fate? The horse continued in the post parade, but Seabiscuit had gotten Smith’s attention. It wasn’t his build, he had a rectangular body with short legs, but Smith looked at the program and saw that the horse was a descendent of the great Man O’ War and was sired by Hard Tack. Seabiscuit reflected none of the beauty and breadth of his forebears, but carried all the nasty, mean and unruly traits of the others.
Tom Smith wanted that horse and Charles Howard made arrangements. Seabiscuit was taken to the Howard barn, but the former owners had worn the horse out. Seabiscuit was exhausted from a hard racing campaign. The horse was only three years old and had already run as many races as most horses would accumulate in a full career. What Tom Smith wanted was time to rest the horse, and give himself a chance to figure out the horses problems and how best to deal with them. Seabiscuit had been abused by a number of jockey’s and it would take some time to turn the horse’s attitude around.
In November of 1936 Howard’s stable of horses were in the San Francisco Bay area of California, the idea was to enter Seabiscuit in the Santa Anita handicap on February 27th of the next year.
Tom Smith had finally found a way to settle the horse down and got Seabiscuit interested in what he was born to do – run. They ran him in two prep races at Bay Meadows and won them both. Red Pollard was aboard in both wins. Then it was on to Southern California for two more prep races prior to the Santa Anita Handicap.
The big cap was run before 60, 000 raucous and cheering race fans. Pollard rode a perfect race weaving his way through the field and got the lead in the stretch – but the jockey let the horse relax around the eighth pole. No one knows for sure, but chances are due to Pollard’s right blind eye he probably didn’t see Rosemont flying down the middle of the track. Seabiscuit was overtaken and couldn’t regain the momentum to win. He lost in a photo finish but won the hearts of Americans all over the depression-plagued land. There was something about that little horse that gave hope to millions who had little more than hope to cling to during those hard times.
Hillenbrand has fashioned a great horse story and readers will come away with knowledge that they could have only learned from a legend.

Writers Notebook:
Another marketing source for writers is Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s ‘The Frugal Book Promoter.’
My review.
After wading through half a dozen cut and paste marketing books, I found it refreshing to read Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s down to earth approach to book promotion. The Frugal Book Promoter is the real deal, easy to read and easy to apply.
In her PR Primer she says, “Don’t publicize your book; instead “brand” yourself.”
In other words don’t be a one-pony show, after all you might write another book or invent something you’d like to promote.
Frugal is filled with easy to understand marketing tips along with how to use postcards, get book reviews and Media interviews. There’s also a chapter on E-Books.

Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com