Seabiscuit

Seabiscuit (May 23, 1933—May 17, 1947) was a champion thoroughbred race horse in the United States. From an inauspicious start, Seabiscuit became an unlikely champion, and during the Great Depression became a symbol of hope to many Americans. At the peak of his fame in 1938, it was suggested that he had generated more newsprint in the U.S. than either Adolf Hitler or Franklin D. Roosevelt, but this is an urban legend. In 2001, Seabiscuit became the subject of a book (Seabiscuit: An American Legend) and later a Universal Studios film (Seabiscuit).

Early days

Seabiscuit was born from the mare Swing On and sired by Hard Tack (son of Man O' War), the bay colt grew up on Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky. He was undersized, knobby-kneed, and not much to look at, and was given to sleeping and eating for long periods. Initially he was trained by the legendary Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, who had taken Gallant Fox to the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Fitzsimmons saw some potential in Seabiscuit, but felt the horse was lazy, and with most of his time taken training Omaha (another Triple Crown winner) Seabiscuit was relegated to a punishing schedule of small races. In his first ten races he failed to win and most times finished well back of the field. After that, training him for racing was almost an afterthought and the horse was sometimes the butt of people's jokes. Then, as a three-year-old, Seabiscuit raced thirty-five times, winning five times, running second seven times. Still, at the end of the racing season, he was used as a work horse. The next racing season, the colt was again less than spectacular and his owners "unloaded" the horse for $8,000, to automobile entrepreneur Charles Howard.

1936–37: The beginning of success

His new trainer, Tom Smith, understood the horse and slowly his unorthodox training methods raised the horse from its lethargy. Smith paired the horse with Canadian jockey Red Pollard (1909–1981), who had experience racing in the West and in Mexico, but was now down on his luck. On August 22, 1936 Seabiscuit raced for the first time for his new jockey and trainer, in Detroit, without impressing. But improvements came quickly and in their remaining eight races in the East, Seabiscuit and Pollard won several times, including Detroit's Governor's Handicap (worth $5,600) and the Scarsdale Handicap (worth $7,300).

In early November 1936, Howard and Smith shipped the horse to California in a rail car. His last two races of the year were at Bay Meadows racetrack in San Francisco, and gave some clue as to what was to come. The first was the $2,700 Bay Bridge Handicap, run over one mile (1.6 km). Seabiscuit started badly from the stalls, but, despite carrying the top weight of 116 lb (53 kg), ran through the field before easing up to win by five lengths, in a time only two fifths of a second outside the world record. This electric form was carried over to the World's Fair Handicap (Bay Meadows' most prestigious stakes race) with Seabiscuit leading throughout, to win by a distance.

For 1937, Howard and Smith turned their attention to February's Santa Anita Handicap. The race, California's most prestigious, was worth over $125,000 to the winner and was known colloquially as "The Hundred Grander". In their first warm up race at Santa Anita Park, they again won easily. In his second race of 1937 (the San Antonia Handicap) Seabiscuit suffered a setback. Bumped at the start, and then pushed wide the horse trailed in fifth, with the win going to the highly fancied Rosemont.

The two would be rematched in the Hundred Grander just a week later. After half a mile (800 m), front runner Special Agent was clearly tired and Seabiscuit seemed perfectly placed to capitalise, before inexplicably slowing on the final straight. The fast closing Rosemont took his chance, edging out Seabiscuit by a nose. The defeat was devasting to Smith and Howard, and widely attributed in the press to a riding error. Pollard, who had seemingly not seen Rosemont over his shoulder until too late, had lost the sight in one eye in a racing accident, a fact he hid throughout his career. Regardless, the horse was rapidly becoming a favorite among Californian racing fans, and his fame spread as he won his next three races, before Howard chose to again relocate the horse, this time for the more prestigious Eastern racing circuit.

Once there, Seabiscuit's run of victories continued unabated. Between June 26 and August 7, he ran five times, each time a stakes race, and each time he won, despite steadily increasing imposts of up to 130 lb (59 kg). The seven consecutive stakes victories tied the record. On September 11, Smith accepted an impost of 132 lb (60 kg) for the Narragansett Special. On race day, the ground was slow and heavy, and entirely unsuited to the Biscuit, even without the heaviest burden of his career. Smith wished to scratch, but Howard overruled him. Seabiscuit was never in the running, and trudged home in third, four lengths behind Calumet Dick, who was carrying only 115 lb (52 kg). The streak was snapped, but the season was not over. Seabiscuit won his next three races (one a dead heat) before finishing the year with a valiant second place at Pimlico.

In 1937, Seabiscuit won eleven of his fifteen races and was the leading money winner in the United States that year. On the West Coast, he had risen to the status of celebrity. His races were followed fanatically on the radio and newsreel and filled hundreds of column inches in the newspapers. Howard, with his business acumen, was ready to cash in, marketing a full range of merchandise to the fans. Considerably less impressed was the Eastern racing establishment. The great three year old, War Admiral, had won the Triple Crown that season and was voted the most prestigious honor, Horse of the Year.

The best horse in America

In 1938, as a five-year-old, Seabiscuit's success would continue, but it would be without Pollard. On February 19, Pollard suffered a terrible fall while racing on Fair Knightess, another Howard horse. With Pollard's chest crushed by the weight of the fallen horse, and his ribs and arm broken, Howard trialed three new jockeys, before deciding on George Woolf, a great rider and old friend of Pollard, to ride Seabiscuit.

Woolf's first race would be the Santa Anita Handicap, the "hundred grander" that Seabiscuit had narrowly lost the previous year. Seabiscuit was drawn on the outside, and from the start was impeded by another horse, Count Atlas, angling out. The two were locked together for the first straight and by the time Woolf had his horse disentangled, they were six lengths from the pace. The pair battled hard, but were beaten by the fast finishing Stagehand, which had been assigned 30 pounds (13.6 kg) fewer than Seabiscuit. Regardless, racegoers knew that Seabiscuit was the moral victor, a fact gladly conceded by Stagehand's jockey.

Throughout 1937 and '38, the media speculated about a match race between him and the seemingly invincible War Admiral. The two horses had been scheduled to meet in three stakes races, but one or the other was scratched, usually due to Seabiscuit's disliking of heavy ground. After extensive negotiation a match race was organised for May 1938 at Belmont, but again Seabiscuit scratched, being not fully fit. By June, however, Pollard had made a recovery and on June 23 agreed to work a young colt named Modern Youth. Spooked by something on the track, the horse broke rapidly through the stables and threw Pollard, shattering his leg, and seemingly ending his career.

A match race was held but it would not be against War Admiral. Instead it was against Ligaroti, a highly regarded horse owned by the Hollywood entertainer Bing Crosby in an event organized to promote Crosby's resort and racetrack in Del Mar, California. With Woolf aboard, Seabiscuit won that race, despite persistent fouling from Ligaroti's jockey. After three more outings, with only one win, he would finally go head to head with War Admiral in the Pimlico Special in Baltimore, Maryland.

The "Match of the century"

On November 1, 1938, Seabiscuit met War Admiral in what was dubbed as the "Match of the Century". The event itself, run over a mile and 3/16, was one of the most anticipated sporting events in US history. The Pimlico Race Course, from the grandstands to the infield, was jammed solid with fans. Trains were run from all over the country to bring rooters to the race, and the estimated 40,000 at the track were joined by some 40 million listening on the radio. War Admiral was the prohibitive favorite (1-4 with most bookmakers) and a near unanimous selection of the writers and tipsters, excluding the California faithful.

Head-to-head races almost always favor fast starters, and War Admiral's speed from the gate was the stuff of legend. Seabiscuit, on the other hand, was a pace stalker, skilled at holding with the pack before destroying the field with late acceleration. From the scheduled walk up start, few gave him a chance to head War Admiral into the first turn. Smith knew these things, and had been secretly training the Biscuit to run against type, using a starting bell and a whip to give the horse a Pavlovian burst of speed from the start.

When the bell went, Seabiscuit ran away from the Triple Crown Champion. Despite being drawn on outside Woolf led by over a length after just 20 seconds. Halfway down the back straight, War Admiral started to eat back into the lead, gradually pulling level, and then slightly ahead. Following advice he had received from Pollard, Woolf allowed his horse to see his rival, and then asked for more effort. Two hundred yards from the wire, Seabiscuit pulled away again as the competition proved too much for War Admiral, and continued to extend his lead over the closing straight, finally winning by four clear lengths.

As a result of his races that year and the victory over War Admiral, Seabiscuit was named "Horse of the Year" for 1938. The only prize that had eluded him was the Hundred Grander.

Injury and Return

When the horse recommenced training for the 1939 season, all Howard and Smith's eyes were trained firmly on that year's Santa Anita Handicap. The horse had got fat through the winter, but appalling weather gave Smith few opportunities to race him, or even work him hard. On February 14, the rains relented long enough for the horse to run in a mile (1.6 km) race at Santa Anita. On heavy ground, the horse seemed to stumble early on, but Woolf drove him on to second place, before pulling him up sharply at the finish. A medical examination confirmed everyone's worst fears. The horse had damaged the suspensory ligament in his left foreleg, and was lame. As Pollard would later say, the horse and his most famous jockey had four good legs between them.

With Seabiscuit out of action, Smith and Howard concentrated on another of their horses, an Argentine stallion named Kayak II. Pollard and Seabiscuit recovered together at Howard's ranch, with Pollard's new wife Agnes, who had nursed him through his initial recovery. Slowly, both horse and rider learned to walk again, although poverty had brought Pollard to the edge of alcoholism. A local doctor broke and reset Pollard's leg to aid his recovery, and slowly Red regained the confidence to sit on the horse. Wearing a brace to stiffen his atrophied leg, he began to ride Seabiscuit again, first at a walk and later at a trot and canter. Howard was delighted at their improvement, as he longed for Seabiscuit to race again, but was extremely worried about Pollard's involvement, as his leg was still fragile.

Over the fall and winter of 1939–40, Seabiscuit's fitness seemed to return by the day. By the end of 1939, Smith was ready to confound veterinary opinion by returning the horse to race training, with a collection of stable jockeys in the saddle. By the time of his comeback race, however, Pollard had cajoled Howard into allowing him the ride. After again scratching from a race due to the soft going, the pair finally lined up at the start of the La Jolla Handicap at Santa Anita, on February 9, 1940. Compared to what had gone before, it was an unremarkable performance (Seabiscuit was third, bested by two lengths) but it was nevertheless an amazing comeback for both. By their third comeback race, Seabiscuit was back to winning ways, running away from the field in the San Antonio Handicap to beat his erstwhile training partner, Kayak II, by two and a half lengths. Burdened by only 124 pounds, Seabiscuit equalled the track record for a mile and 1/16.

There was only one race left. A week after the San Antonio, Seabiscuit and Kayak II both took the gate for the Santa Anita Handicap, and its $121,000 prize. 78,000 paying spectators crammed the racetrack, most backing the people's champion to complete his amazing return to racing. The start was inauspicious, as a tentative Pollard found his horse blocked almost from start. Picking his way through the field, Seabiscuit briefly led. As they thundered down the back straight, Seabiscuit became trapped in third place, behind leader Whichcee and Wedding Call on the outside. Trusting in his horse's acceleration, Pollard steered a dangerous line between the leaders and burst into the lead, taking the firm ground just off the rail. As Seabiscuit showed his old surge, Wedding Call and Whichcee faltered, and Pollard drove his horse on, taking the Hundred Grander by a length and half from the fast closing Kayak II.

Pandemonium engulfed the course. Neither horse nor rider, nor trainer nor owner could get through the sea of well-wishers to the winner's enclosure for some time.

On April 10, Seabiscuit's retirement from racing was officially announced. When he was retired to the Ridgewood Ranch near Willits, California, Seabiscuit, the horse nobody wanted, was horse racing's all-time leading money winner. Put out to stud, Seabiscuit sired 108 foals, including two moderately successful racehorses, "Sea Swallow" and "Sea Sovereign". Over 5,000 visitors made the trek to Ridgewood Ranch to see Seabiscuit in the seven years he spent there before his death.

Seabiscuit in popular culture

At Santa Anita Park a life-sized bronze statue of Seabiscuit is on display. In 1958, he was voted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. In the Blood-Horse magazine ranking of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, Seabiscuit was ranked #25. His grandfather, Man O' War, was #1.

In 2001 Laura Hillenbrand wrote Seabiscuit: An American Legend (ISBN 0449005615), an award-winning account of Seabiscuit's career. The book became a bestseller, and on July 25, 2003, Universal Studios released a new motion picture titled Seabiscuit. In 1949, a fictionalized account was made into the motion picture The Story of Seabiscuit, starring Shirley Temple. "Sea Sovereign" took the title role. Hillenbrand describes it as "inexcusably bad".

References

• Hillenbrand, Laura (2001), "Seabiscuit: An American Legend."
• "Seabiscuit", Film by Steven Ives, produced by PBS [1] (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/seabiscuit/filmmore/filmcredits.html)

External link

• The Seabiscuit Heritage Foundation (http://www.seabiscuitheritage.com/)
• Snopes.com link on the column inches urban legend  (http://www.snopes.com/sports/horse/seabiscuit.asp).ja:シービスケット

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