Laura Hillenbrand Laura Hillenbrand was a swimmer and an accomplished rider until she was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. She has been writing about history and thoroughbred racing since 1988 and has been a contributing writer and editor at Equus magazine since 1989. Her work has also appeared in American Heritage, ABC Sports Online, Thoroughbred Times, Talk, and many other publications. Her 1998 American Heritage article on Seabiscuit won her a second Eclipse Award for outstanding feature article. She also served as a consultant on the Universal Pictures movie based on her book "Seabiscuit: An American Legend," which spent 23 weeks on the best-seller list Laura Hillenbrand has… spent nearly her entire life as a self-described horse lover, and she was honored by the Turf Publicists of America for her contributions to the sport of Thoroughbred racing with the 36th annual "Big Sport of Turfdom" award. In winning this, she became just the fifth woman to win the Big Sport of Turfdom award.