One-track mind

Gary Ross sits inside a horse veterinarian's truck, fishtailing around the corners of Hollywood Park's main track. A dull roar rises from the bettors in the distant grandstands as the field for the seventh race enters the stretch. Ross has a big bet on Bay Town Boy, but from inside the vet's truck, which trails the horses in case one breaks down, it's impossible to tell who will win.

The filmmaker is here for pleasure, not business, but somehow it all feels a bit like directing a movie: The wager is large, the outcome either exhilarating or heartbreaking, but certainly beyond control. As the truck skids in the dirt through the last turn, it's also scary. "But," the director says, "this is the best place to watch a race."

"Seabiscuit," Laura Hillenbrand's bestseller, tells the story not only of an astonishing race horse but also chronicles racing's hidden world, where trainers magically coax blazing speed from previously lumbering colts, jockeys starve themselves thin and broken people and animals are made whole in a furious dash between starting gate and finish line. The racetrack, in her book and in real life, is a populist phenomenon, where the joy and pain of the $2 bettor is as intense as the millionaire Hollywood part-owner of a Kentucky Derby contender.

Spending a night at the races with Ross, who adapted Hillenbrand's book and directed "Seabiscuit," offers its own distinctive vantage points on the track and the man. But first, the betting windows beckon.

Sitting in a clubhouse box with a beer and peanuts, Ross scans the field for the second race. "None of these horses are any good," Ross says, quickly inspecting the Daily Racing Form. Almost all the top jockeys, including "Seabiscuit" co-star Gary Stevens, are taking the night off. Journeymen riders like David Nuesch and Luis Jauregui, both of whom were stunt doubles in the film, have several mounts apiece.

Ross bets a series of complicated trifectas, which require picking the exact order of finish for the first three horses. "Stop the race!" he yells, when his three horses are in the right lineup down the backstretch. The final results are much different, however, and Ross doesn't cash any of his exotic bets. But a covering wager on The Lawyer, who finishes second, leaves him even.

"When you see horses with your heart, that's what makes racing fun," Ross says between races. "But that's not how you should gamble. The amount that I have bet on horses has gone down dramatically since I started making the movie."