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Seabiscuit: An American Legend is a non-fiction
book written by Laura Hillenbrand published in 2001 about the
thoroughbred race horse, Seabiscuit. It won the William Hill Sports
Book of the Year and was made into a feature film in 2003. It has
also been published under the title: Seabiscuit - The True Story Of
3 Men & A Race Horse.
Seabiscuit grabbed the attention of the American
public in the post-Depression Era when almost everyone was down and
out and winning anything seemed remote. Suddenly, virtually out of
nowhere came a smaller horse that started to win big. Radio was a
new mode of entertainment that could reach almost everyone in the
country. Horse races were broadcast, and that's how people became
interested in the little horse. Seabiscuit had a troubled upbringing
and was thought to be a discipline problem. However, it was the eye
of trainer Smith who singled Seabiscuit out as a trainable racehorse
for Howard. Smith also saw that jockey Pollard, red-haired and
feisty, could probably be a good match for Seabiscuit and he was
right--oh, so right.
The story takes place in 1937-38, when three men, all battling
personal tragedy and circumstances, come together to buy, train, and
ride a horse. The horse is a beautiful but temperamental animal, and
it's done nothing in its previous races. In racing, past performance
is usually an indicator of future profits. So the dream that the
horse might become something other than it is is mostly a fantasy.
But under the watchful eye of trainer Tom Smith and the ebullient
ride of Johnny Pollard , Seabiscuit does indeed turn into something
special.
Seabiscuit, a descendant of the great thoroughbred
Man o'War through his son Hard Tack, was born on May 23, 1934. He
was never a complete outcast, as portrayed in the movie, but
actually won nine races and U.S. $26,965 in prize money before
Charles Howard, a wealthy bicycle repair man turned car dealer,
bought the three-year-old horse for a mere U.S. $8,000.
Still, with his stumpy legs that wouldn't completely straighten,
Seabiscuit wasn't considered a great prospect. Some said he wasn't
worth the hay in a first-class barn.
Seabiscuit was an unlikely champion. He was a rough-hewn, undersized
horse with a sad little tail and knees that wouldn't straighten all
the way. At a gallop, he jabbed one foreleg sideways, as if he were
swatting flies. For two years, he fought his trainers and floundered
at the lowest level of racing, misunderstood and mishandled, before
his dormant talent was discovered by three men.
But he had a believer in Tom Smith, also known as "Silent Tom," a
trainer whose reluctance to speak led some people to believe he
didn't have a tongue.
Smith found a jockey in Johnny "Red" Pollard, one of seven children
born to a bankrupt brick manufacturer, who spent years at the
country's lowliest racetracks, talking his way onto as many mounts
as he could.
At 5'7", Pollard was too tall to be a jockey. He was also blind in
one eye, something he tried to keep a secret. Without bifocal
vision, he lacked depth perception and couldn't tell how far ahead
of him horses were.
Against all odds, Seabiscuit became an instant success, winning race
after race. Howard, who marketed his Western-bred underdog as a
challenger to the East Coast racing establishment, sent barrels of
champagne to the press box before races. Seabiscuit became the most
popular horse in America during the Great Depression.
But trouble lurked around the corner. While riding another horse,
Pollard fell and shattered his Leg, broke his shoulder, and
fractured his ribs. Doctors told him he would never ride again, But
he would Walk.
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East vs. West
When a match-up was finally set up between Seabiscuit and War
Admiral, an elegant East Coast champion and winner of the Triple
Crown—the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes—a new jockey,
George Woolf, took the reins of Seabiscuit.
The resulting race became a contest between two worlds: the East
Coast establishment of bankers and their beautiful horses versus a
nation of disillusioned have-nots who championed a hero that had
been beat up just like them.
"Seabiscuit was given a second chance and made the most of it," said
Paulick. "People in the Great Depression could relate: All they
wanted was a second chance in life. Seabiscuit lived out their
dream."
In the one-on-one match-up at Maryland's Pimlico Racecourse,
Seabiscuit beat War Admiral by four lengths. Sports writers went
crazy, calling it the greatest race in history.
But the best quote came from Pollard: "He did just what I thought
he'd do," Pollard said at the time from his hospital bed. "He made a
rear admiral out of War Admiral."
Pollard returned in 1940 to ride Seabiscuit for the one race that
had eluded the horse: California's Santa Anita. Seventy-five
thousand people—the biggest crowd ever to attend an American horse
race—watched as Seabiscuit came from behind to win in the fastest
mile and a quarter (two kilometers) the track had seen until then.
Soon after, Seabiscuit retired. He earned U.S. $437,730 between 1935
and 1940. He died of a heart attack on May 17, 1947.
In the sultry summer of 1936, Howard bought Seabiscuit for a
bargain-basement price and entrusted him to Smith and Pollard. Using
frontier training methods that raised eyebrows on the backstretch,
they discovered that beneath the hostility and fear was a
gentlemanly horse with keen intelligence, frightening speed, and
ferocious competetive will. It was the beginning of four years of
extraordinary drama, in which Seabiscuit overcame a phenomenal run
of bad fortune to become one of the most spectacular performers in
sports history.
HEROES-TEAM
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