Verdict: One for the winner's circle.

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

There's an old saying in horse racing: Breed the best to the best and hope for the best.

That's exactly what director Gary Ross has done with "Seabiscuit." He's taken a trio of superb actors - Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper - and Laura Hillenbrand's thrillingly good best seller and melded them into a graceful, intelligent and heartfelt film. Much like last summer's "Road to Perdition," "Seabiscuit" stands out as the class act amid a jumble of car chases and superheroes. Right from the beginning, Ross lets us know this is not going to be just another maverick-stallion-finds-love-and-wins-the-Big-Race story. Seabiscuit himself (played by several horses, but by Fighting Ferrari in close-ups) doesn't appear until about 45 minutes into the movie.

First are solemn scene-setting photos of the Depression '30s, narrated with papal authority by historian David McCullough. Then we meet the men behind the horse.

Tom Smith (Cooper), a taciturn plainsman, is the original horse whisperer. He only moves to racing because the frontier he knew is disappearing. Red Pollard (Maguire) is a too-tall (5-foot-7) jockey who quotes Shakespeare and Emerson. But before Seabiscuit, he wasn't exactly a top jock. Charles Howard (Bridges), a zesty millionaire, made his fortune off automobiles, the very thing that would replace the horse. He's an ebullient man with a natural flair for showmanship, but he's haunted by the death of his son. Shilling for his cars, he says, "I wouldn't spend five dollars on the best horse in America."

It's not very long before he's paying $2,000 or so for one of the worst racehorses in America - a stubborn also-ran named Seabiscuit. But Smith steadies the horse, Pollard believes in him, and Howard sells him to the adoring press as soon as he starts winning. In a short time, Seabiscuit goes from claimer to beloved national hero, with his name on everything from wallets to hats to board games.

The movie has two climaxes. The first is the match race with War Admiral, conqueror of the Triple Crown and perfection on four legs. Think Rocky vs. Apollo Creed. The second reaffirms the bond between Pollard and the Biscuit. Both come back from career-ending injuries - "We've got four legs between us," Pollard cracks - to run in the elusive and lucrative Santa Anita Handicap, a race that had eluded Seabiscuit twice. Maguire's "Spider-Man" clout undoubtedly helped "Seabiscuit" to the screen. But he's also intriguing, game and absolutely credible as this odd-duck jock whose time somehow finally came when he got the right horse. True, Bridges is doing a variation of his auto magnate in "Tucker: The Man and His Dream." But he's such great company, you can't wait to see what he does next, whether it's wooing the press with Seabiscuit's cast-off lucky horseshoes or providing a father figure for Pollard. And Cooper, well, what can you say about an actor who won an Oscar for playing a toothless and loquacious swamp rat in "Adaptation" and then ably morphs into a laconic cowboy who'd rather talk to horses than humans? Ross can be too eager to show us the parallels between the triumphs of Seabiscuit, the common man's champ, and America slowly climbing out of the Depression. This concept is a thread throughout the book, but by giving it so much weight and screen time, he loses much of the pungency and humor of Hillenbrand's writing. The movie is a little too aware of its burden of greatness. As the Harry Potter movies have proven, absolute fidelity to the book isn't necessarily a virtue. But the changes Ross makes come perilously close to horse-movie clichés. Still, the picture's got heart, style and staying power. Much like the horse it celebrates, "Seabiscuit" outruns its problems and comes home a winner by a nose.

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