About this item
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 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.
About the Author
From me to you, about Battleship:Leap was the working title for this book. That one word fits the story as a noun, a verb, and unifying theme. While Battleship does contain the story of the racehorse Battleship -- he is the remarkable force which brings everything together -- this story explores several versions of the passion, planning, and persistence that it takes to make a leap of faith.If you are a horse person who wants to know what Battleship was like, you will find as much here as I could find. I love his journey from temperamental baby to poised professional to crafty middle-aged guy protecting his assets.Yet that is only one strand of how this story speaks about the joys and hurdles of life. Whether or not you love horses, I hope that reading this book may give you at least some of what researching and writing it gave me. It isn't a story stuck to one moment in history, or only relevant to the horse world. These true happenings are a source for timeless reflections: the blend of skill and instinct that let a man fly a small plane across the Atlantic Ocean or a teenage boy guide a small horse around the world's toughest steeplechase course ... how much of success depends on partnership ... how easy it can be to choose surface over substance, or gossip above proof. Add a good laugh here and there, plus more than a few thrills, and -- yes -- inspiration to take a deep breath when a poor jump knocks the stuffing out of us, and keep finding more.We all face what the Grand National race proves, time and again: no matter how rich or talented we may be, we can't control everything life brings. We can only aim our own attitude. Call it making a leap or being a Battleship ... I wish you a good read and a good ride.Cheers!Dorothy
