This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Gareth Owen (talk | contribs) at 13:38, 28 July 2004. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 13:38, 28 July 2004 by Gareth Owen (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Seabiscuit (1933-1947) was a champion American thoroughbred race horse.
Born on May 23, 1933 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. 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 most of 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 10 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. On August 22, 1936 he 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 times, including Detroit's Governer'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.
In 1937, as a four year old, Seabisuit, ridden by Canadian jockey Red Pollard (1909-1981), won eleven of his fifteen races and was the leading money winner in the United States that year. However, Seabiscuit's success was primarily on the West Coast and he had been narrowly beaten by Rosemont in the $100,000 Santa Anita Handicap. (A defeat which was widely attributed to an error by Pollard, who hid the fact he was blind one eye throughout his career). The form failed to impress the Eastern racing establishment. Furthermore, 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.
As a five year old, Seabiscuit's success continued and there was much speculation in the media that there would be a match race between him and the seemingly invincible War Admiral. A match race was held but it would not be against War Admiral but instead against a highly regarded horse owned by the Hollywood entertainer Bing Crosby. Seabiscuit won that race and after a few more outings he would finally go head to head with War Admiral in the Pimlico Special in Baltimore, Maryland. On November 1, 1938, in what was dubbed as the "Match of the Century", Seabiscuit ran away from the Triple Crown Champion. As a result of his races that year and the victory over War Admiral, Seabiscuit was named "Horse of the Year" for 1938. When he was retired to the Ridgewood Ranch in California, Seabiscuit, the horse nobody wanted, was the horse racing's all-time leading money winner.
In 1949, a fictionalized story of Seabiscuit was made into a motion picture starring Shirley Temple. 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 thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, Seabiscuit was ranked #25.
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.