Click2Flicks - Seabiscuit - Tom Smith - Chapter 4

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>SEABISCUIT</p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 4 - TOM SMITH</b></font></p> </div>  <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">Tom Smith was a “<a href="http://www.westernwheel.com/990616/news-whisperer.html" target="_blank"><b>horse whisperer</b></a>.” Known as “Silent Tom” to people, he could <a target="_blank" href="images/communicate.jpg"><b>communicate</b></a> with horses like few others. But in the early decades of the 20th century, Smith’s way of life was fast disappearing. By the 1930s, cars had unquestionably replaced horses as the principal mode of transportation for Americans.</p> <p>Smith, the man who brilliantly communicated with horses, found work at some of the race tracks. After the stock market crashed in 1929, however, the <a href="http://www.click2history.com/great_depression/great_depression_ch1.htm" target="_blank"><b>Great Depression</b></a> descended on the United States. People weren’t betting on horses, and there were few jobs available for a guy who had dedicated his career to an obsolete way of life. A period of gloom had descended on America - and on Tom Smith. He took a job in Tijuana, Mexico, at the <a target="_blank" href="images/caliente.track.jpg"><b>Agua Caliente track</b></a>.</p> <p>In 1934, Charles Howard hired Smith to help him break into horse racing - the "<a target="_blank" href="images/sport.kings.jpg"><b>sport of kings</b></a>." Sent to the East Coast to find a good horse, Smith saw Seabiscuit for the first time. Bad-tempered, the horse had been raced too often. But there was something about him that later made Smith <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/seabiscuit/mammalsevents/m_smith.html" target="_blank"><b>tell</b></a> Howard:</p> <center><font face="Times New Roman"><b><i>Get me that horse.</i></b></font></center> <p align="justify"><font face="arial, helvetica">Listening to <a target="_blank" href="images/tom_smith_.jpg"><b>Tom</b></a> on that subject, Charles Howard made one of the best business decisions of his life. He paid a mere $8,000 for the racer who would become the top money-winner of his day.</p> <p>Seabiscuit was an unlikely choice, but <a target="_blank" href="images/tom.smith2.jpg"><b>Tom Smith</b></a> saw something special that few others saw in the <a target="_blank" href="images/knobby.jpg"><b>knobby-kneed</b></a> thoroughbred. And there was something more. Something unusual. When the future champion saw his future trainer for the first time, he nodded at him. Perhaps the horse also sensed something special in the man.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font face="arial, helvetica" size="2"><a href="seabiscuit_ch3.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="seabiscuit_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>    <a href="seabiscuit_ch5.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>