Seabiscuit: Chapters 13–19

by Laura Hillenbrand
In this engrossing work of nonfiction, Laura Hillenbrand recounts how three men teamed up to turn an unlikely racehorse into an American racing icon.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Preface–Chapter 6, Chapters 7–12, Chapters 13–19, Chapter 20–Epilogue

Here is a link to our lists forUnbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.
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words only definitions & notes
  1. demean
    reduce in worth or character, usually verbally
    Riddle did not believe that Seabiscuit was in War Admiral’s league and may have felt that by agreeing to run against a western horse in a match race, he would be demeaning his colt.
  2. quandary
    state of uncertainty in a choice between unfavorable options
    Normile had pulled off a coup in getting Seabiscuit to come down for the Agua Caliente Handicap, but now he faced another quandary.
  3. melee
    a noisy riotous fight
    “One unfortunate citizen,” wrote a reporter, “got in line to buy a win ticket on Patty Cake in the sixth and was considerably bewildered to find himself coming out of the melee at the end of the seventh with a hot dog.”
  4. raucous
    disturbing the public peace; loud and rough
    The fans went wild, taking up a raucous cheer: “Bring on War Admiral! Bring on War Admiral!”
  5. inertia
    the tendency of something to stay in rest or motion
    But to have any chance against War Admiral, Smith knew he was going to have to make the habitually pace-stalking Seabiscuit, who had to fight the inertia of a much blockier heavier body, into a rocket-fast breaker.
  6. epaulet
    an ornamental cloth pad worn on the shoulder
    “We’ve got to tear off that guy’s epaulets,” he said aloud, “pull the ostrich feather out of his hat and break his sword in two early or we’ll never even get close enough to the Admiral to give him the sailor’s farewell.”
  7. skittishness
    nervousness or quickness to take fright
    For horses, herd animals alert to clues of danger from each other, skittishness is contagious.
  8. inure
    cause to accept or become hardened to
    He needed to expose Seabiscuit to a similarly unruly gate horse and inure him to the sight of it.
  9. incorrigible
    impervious to correction by punishment
    The horse had proved fairly useful as a stakes horse, but he was an incorrigible rogue at the starting gate.
  10. mercurial
    liable to sudden unpredictable change
    He was in a mercurial Hastings temper, and a halter and chain looped over his bridle barely restrained him.
  11. plait
    a hairdo formed by braiding or twisting the hair
    Whitey had done his best to clean Seabiscuit up, braiding his mane, forelock, and tail, but the mane plaits didn’t lie right and stuck out like quills.
  12. curmudgeon
    an irascible, cantankerous person full of stubborn ideas
    The reporters assumed that Smith was just being curmudgeonly, but there was likely more to it than that.
  13. abut
    lie adjacent to another or share a boundary
    He was heading toward the training track, which abutted the main track’s clubhouse turn.
  14. incongruity
    the quality of disagreeing
    Some of the dockers, training their field glasses on Tom Smith’s face as he led the horse back to the barn, noticed a glaring incongruity.
  15. wily
    marked by skill in deception
    “I was just wondering which would be the winner in a contest such as this—an Indian fighter’s intuition or that wily old boy, coincidence,” Roger wrote later.
  16. mollify
    cause to be more favorably inclined
    Apparently in an effort to mollify the inflamed press, he let photographers back into the barn.
  17. ubiquitous
    being present everywhere at once
    The horses were on the cover of Newsweek as well as the ubiquitous Radio Guide, which showed War Admiral galloping, Seabiscuit yawning.
  18. ruse
    a deceptive maneuver, especially to avoid capture
    There was a rumor that Seabiscuit’s lameness was a ruse designed to avoid a loss to War Admiral, and an awful lot of people believed it.
  19. staccato
    marked by or composed of disconnected parts or sounds
    He clicked past the track poles at a staccato pace.
  20. rictus
    a gaping grimace
    Pollard’s face was a rictus of agony, his lips peeled back over his teeth, and gusts of pain were rolling through his body and escaping through his mouth in deep guttural roars.
  21. paraphernalia
    equipment consisting of miscellaneous articles
    They hoisted the screaming rider up from the foot of the barn wall and gently laid him on the horse paraphernalia.
  22. plaintive
    expressing sorrow
    Smith, a lifelong teetotaler who strongly disapproved of Pollard’s drinking, probably waved off the jockey’s plaintive wails for alcohol that morning.
  23. despondent
    without or almost without hope
    Yummy stayed by Pollard all day, despondent, greeting the worried friends who came to see him.
  24. surly
    unfriendly and inclined toward anger or irritation
    Guarded by Spot, a surly Dalmatian who took hunks of flesh out of reporters who got too close, he stormed around the barn and fretted, pouted and balked in his workouts.
  25. quagmire
    a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot
    The track was a quagmire. Howard and Smith stepped out into the muck and worried.
  26. supine
    lying face upward
    Alexander found Pollard lying supine with his leg up in traction, his misery greatly assuaged by a leggy private nurse named Agnes.
  27. poultice
    a medical dressing spread on a cloth and applied to the skin
    The next morning Smith packed Seabiscuit’s leg in poultices, bundled him up with the rest of the Howard horses, and got the hell out of Boston.
  28. blatant
    without any attempt at concealment; completely obvious
    The action was unprecedented; no one had ever seen stewards treat a trainer with such blatant distrust.
  29. chicanery
    the use of tricks to deceive someone
    In their zeal to avoid resurrecting the sport’s reputation for chicanery, they tried to bury the incident.
  30. ruminate
    reflect deeply on a subject
    He pored over “Old Waldo” Emerson and ruminated on the philosopher’s essay on “Compensation.”
  31. tenacious
    stubbornly unyielding
    He came to view the race as Pollard did, as a test of toughness, and had never seen a horse as tenacious as Seabiscuit.
  32. coy
    showing marked and often playful evasiveness or reluctance
    Asked if War Admiral would set the pace, Marcela was coy.
  33. exuberant
    joyously unrestrained
    That night, Baltimore glittered and rang with exuberant prerace parties, the next day’s racegoers singing out “Maryland, My Maryland” as they passed outside the track.
  34. cavort
    play boisterously
    They named him Match in honor of the occasion and sent him over to the barn to cavort with Pocatell and Seabiscuit’s guard dog, Silver.
  35. disgorge
    eject the contents of the stomach through the mouth
    All morning long, automobiles and special trains disgorged thousands and thousands of passengers from every corner of the nation and the world; the assembly of foreign dignitaries alone equaled a normal day’s attendance.
  36. ballast
    any heavy material used to stabilize a ship or airship
    Woolf threw himself forward as ballast, thrusting his feet straight back.
  37. grueling
    characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion
    Seabiscuit was going much, much too fast for so grueling a race.
  38. disconcerted
    having self-possession upset; thrown into confusion
    Marcela sank back down, disconcerted.
  39. cordon
    a series of sentinels or posts enclosing some place or thing
    In the winner’s circle, the police cordon gave way and the reporters and fans pressed in again, wedging Seabiscuit and his handlers into the corner.
  40. unperturbed
    free from emotional agitation or nervous tension
    Unperturbed by the near riot around him, Seabiscuit began gently plucking flowers off the wreath and eating them.
Created on Sat May 02 19:59:23 EDT 2015 (updated Wed Sep 05 16:11:26 EDT 2018)

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