James Fitzsimmons

James Fitzsimmons grows up in Brooklyn and spends a great deal of time at the Coney Island Jockey Club. By age ten, he is working odd jobs at the track and trying his hand at being a jockey. Deciding that aspect of the sport is not for him, Sunny Jim, as he is called at the track, carves his place in the industry as the best conditioner of thoroughbreds in the country. Fitzsimmons trains Hard Tack, the roguish-tempered father, of Seabiscuit until it becomes evident that Hard Tack is literally untrainable. His owner, Gladys Phipps, offers him at stud, but when no one accepts her free offer, she mates the horse with one of her own mares. The result is Seabiscuit and Grog, neither of which have their father's temperament or their champion grandfather's zeal.

By virtue of his work with the lineage, Fitzsimmons is entrusted with...