Battleship: A Daring Heiress, a Teenage Jockey, and America's Horse
by Dorothy Ours 
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Description
The moving story of a tough little horse, a gifted boy, and a woman ahead of her time. The youngest jockey, the smallest horse, and an unconventional heiress who disliked publicizing herself. Together, near Liverpool, England, they made a leap of faith on a spring day in 1938: overriding the jockey's father, trusting the boy and the horse that the British nicknamed "the American pony" to handle a race course that newspapers called Suicide Lane. There, Battleship might become the first show more American racer to win England's monumental, century-old Grand National steeplechase. His rider, Great Britain's Bruce Hobbs, was only seventeen years old. Hobbs started life with an advantage: his father, Reginald, was a superb professional horseman. But Reg Hobbs also made extreme demands, putting Bruce in situations that horrified the boy's mother and sometimes terrified the child. Bruce had to decide just how brave he could stand to be. On the other side of the Atlantic, the enigmatic Marion duPont grew up at the estate now known as James Madison's Montpelier--the refuge of America's "Father of the Constitution." Rejecting her chance to be a debutante, denied a corporate role because of her gender, Marion chose a pursuit where horses spoke for her. Taking on the world's toughest race, she would leave her film-star husband, Randolph Scott, a continent away and be pulled beyond her own control. With its reach from Lindbergh's transatlantic flight to Cary Grant's Hollywood,Battleship is an epic tale of personal drive to test one's own true worth. show lessTags
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ThingScore 75
"Although the book is titled after horse, it's really the story of Marion [duPont] ... and of Bruce [Hobbs} ... Perfect for fans of Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit (2001) or Bill Nack's Secretariat (1975)."
added by DorothyOurs
"The action unfolds on multiple levels ... a riveting, real-life soap opera."
added by DorothyOurs
Author Information
2 Works 223 Members
Dorothy Ours is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.
Awards and Honors
Awards
Common Knowledge
- Important places
- Aintree Race Course, Liverpool, UK
- Important events
- Grand National
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 40
- Popularity
- 731,653
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 1
