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INGLEWOOD (CBSLA.com) — A horse was exhumed Saturday at the now defunct Hollywood Park Race Track. CBS2′s Greg Mills was there and said archeology students from USC participated in the dig. The horse was buried near the grandstand about eight feet down. The students arrived just before 8 a.m. Saturday morning. By 5 p.m., they’d already dug far enough to expose the horse’s remains, including the ribs and hindquarters. The dig was an unusual project for the students to undertake. “It really gives them the chance to get hands-on experience,” said archeologist Sarah Newman.”It’s experience that is really hard to...

GOING THE DISTANCE Following in her father's footsteps, Vanessa Kerry is training to run in the Boston Marathon. John Kerry's youngest daughter is studying in London on a Fulbright scholarship, but told friends in a recent e-mail that she's training for the April race. (Her father has said he competed in the late 1970s.) In the e-mail, Kerry said she's running as part of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's marathon team and invited friends to visit the Dana-Farber website and make a donation supporting cancer research. (Among those who've responded are famous friends: singer Carole King and Al Gore's middle daughter,...

This month's Freeper Reading Club discussion is on the book "Seabiscuit." Post away with your comments. If you read this book then you know it was a much richer story than they had in the movie due to time limitations.

Has anyone noticed The beginning of the new movie Seabiscuit? The story of Seabiscuit took place during the big depression and the viewer is given a montage of depression era souplines, "okie" camps, stockmarket wipeouts, etc. Then the venue changes and we are treated to 1930's news shots of WPA construction projects, CCC rural improvement projects and a quick shot of FDR with the commentator saying "Things are better because of FDR and the help of the government". I was shocked by this propaganda display and feel that it had nothing to do with the story. Also, interjecting this material...

Was it just my imagination, or did I detect a lot of knee-jerk political reactions in the reviews of "Seabiscuit"? That movie should have been just another horse opera with a great come-from-behind ending -- like "National Velvet." Instead it proved a kind of ideological litmus test. Well, sure. From movies to sitcoms, everything's got a political subtext these days -- except maybe politics itself. There's no sub- to its text: raw ambition and competing interests. Both are out there in the open. But when it came to "Seabiscuit," the reviewers' ideological preferences seemed to weigh heavily in their esthetic...

Ignoble End for Derby Champ It was recently learned that Ferdinand, who won Kentucky Derby in 1986, died last year in Japan slaughterhouse after failed stud career. By Bill Christine Times Staff Writer July 23, 2003 DEL MAR — Perhaps no one in U.S. horse racing was more saddened to hear about Ferdinand's ignoble death than Bill Shoemaker. "It's terrible," said Shoemaker, who was 54 when he won the Kentucky Derby with Ferdinand in 1986. "It's hard to believe that the horse couldn't have been brought here to live out the rest of his life." Ferdinand, who was 20, died...

I hate horses. Yeah, I know horses look like noble creatures but they are incredibly filthy plus they are dangerous as hell. I remember working as a kid in the stable of our Tennessee farm on a summer break from my Washington D.C. hotel suite residence, building up my résumé as a farmer for my future political career. Even though I only had to do such work for about a couple of hours each summer, I really hated it. Horse sweat smells horrible and even worse is the odor of manure mixed in with gallons of urine. One summer...

<p>Adapted from Laura Hillenbrand's bestseller and with narration by historian David McCullough, the film version of "Seabiscuit" seems destined to become the official version of the rags-to-riches horse and his place in the history of the Depression. If you picked up a newspaper or magazine or switched on an entertainment program last weekend, you heard that Seabiscuit was "the most beloved athletic figure" or even "the most famous icon" in America in the late 1930s, surpassing (to cite just three names pulled out of last weekend's stories hooked to the film's release) Clark Gable, Lou Gehrig and Franklin D. Roosevelt in popularity.</p>

<p>PHILADELPHIA - (KRT) - They wait, snorting and prancing in the starting gate, nostrils flared and eyes rolled, each one half a ton of coiled energy quivering to be loosed.</p> <p>And one of the jockeys looks down sneeringly at the racehorse named Seabiscuit and says to the man on the little horse's back: "Kinda small, isn't he?"</p>

Documentary on Seabiscuit with interveiws with stars of the film and scens from the movie. FYI

View From the Rail: Beware! 'Seabiscuit' may inspire some hopeI love the new "Seabiscuit" movie so much it hurts. What do you expect from a railbird? But for those of you who don't like heaping dollops of poetry and lush cinematography to go along with a great story, it's going to be tough love. I want to encourage those with type-A personalities to hang in there. So please read this review with your tongue firmly in your cheek. Once in a great while a movie comes along that everyone should see. Don't miss this film. It's a story about our...

3 1/2 *'s from this reviewer. I just saw Seabiscuit. Having just read and greatly enjoyed the book, I was anxious to see how faithful the movie would be to it. Sometimes movies after books disappoint. This one did not! First and foremost, this isn't only a chick flick about a horse (my husband liked it a lot). This is a story about 3 men and horse to whom life dealt bust hands. Down on their luck, Seabiscuit, Charles Howard, his owner, Tom Smith, trainer, and Red Pollard, jockey, were providentially brought together and through courage, patience and trust in...

Limp 'Biscuit' - 'Seabiscuit' pulls up lame, courtesy of a director who should have reined in the sentimentality By Christopher Kelly Star-Telegram Film Critic [Review of movie snipped to avoid plot giveaway - last paragraph of review follows:] Considering the heartless alternatives out there, I suspect this kind of big, sloppy treacle will probably go over big. All that proves is that no one ever went broke by pandering to white, middle-class audiences. Indeed, from its stately pace to its gleaming photography to the fact that the only African-American character seems to have stepped out of a regional theater production...

A Thrilling Return To Quality Movie Making-MALCOLM JOHNSON-Courant film critic Few sights deliver more heady visual excitement than a horse and rider....

<p>July 23, 2003 -- A horse is a horse of course, of course, but the feisty little red bay star of "Seabiscuit" was something else altogether - and it took a stable of ponies to portray him.</p> <p>Eight different Thoroughbreds were required to bring to the screen the many moods and behaviors of the knock-kneed upstart who defied the odds to become an inspirational hero to Depression-era America.</p>

The story of Seabiscuit is on PBS American Experience right now. If any one is interested, this is a great story.

Have at it.