If Seabiscuit could talk, he would have probably answered a million questions about him, many that were insufficiently answered over a period of time by race experts and his own connections and many that still lay uncovered under wraps of curiosity and doubt. Despite a best-seller biographical narration about his accomplishments, his rivalry with other horses, his predisposition with his stable mates and his connections, there is still little discovered about this great legendary race horse that in his lifetime outshone bringing hope to the entire American nation when the Great Depression drove them to the precipice. rnEvery character that played a part in Seabiscuit’s life, including himself was a victim of the Great Depression hit by the financial crisis so extreme that once the winning accounts of Seabiscuit’s started doing the rounds, it brought with it a spring of hope and faith that all struggle would soon be over and a new beginning would dawn upon the masses. rnCharles Howard, a businessman for bicycle parts and repairs, had evolved into a successful automotive salesman in the 1920s and owned a thriving business before being struck upon by the massive economic crash on the unfortunate October, the 29th 1929, also known as the Black Tuesday. rnRed Pollard, born to an immigrant family of John Pollard, a brickyard owner, also suffered the impact of the Black Tuesday only to end up away from his parents to survive and sustain a living as a budding jockey. rnTom Smith was born in Georgia, and grew up to work at a cattle ranch and train horses for the cavalry until he was hired by Charles Howard, to train the most incredible horse of that decade, soon to be called as Seabiscuit. rnSeabiscuit was born to the son of the greatest of all thoroughbreds, the mighty Man o’ War. His owners Gladys Phipps and trainer Sunny Fritzsimmons declared him incorrigible after months of training the colt owing to his absolute stubbornness and anger reminiscent of his pedigree and two other features he was infamous for; his extreme inclination to sleep for hours and his appetite for food twice as much as the finer racehorses of those times despite a frame that barely measured 15 hands. He was utilized to train other horses through head to head duels and ran a gruelling schedule of almost two claiming races every week. Eventually, he was sold off to Howard Charles at a meagre price of $2000. rnBut then, that’s where the legend took off. The three men, Charles Howard, Tom Smith and Red Pollard were brought together in a strong association that formed the foundation of Secretariat’s winning career. Secretariat acclimatized himself to the companionship of stable mate Pumpkin, another horse Tom introduced in his stall to provide him company and a dog called Pocatell. rnA dedicated training with immense faith in this underdog arose a champion from amid derided judgments and Secretariat was winning races one after the other. He won the Californian hero of handicap races, winning the Brooklyn Handicap, the Hollywood Gold Cup, the Bay Meadows Handicap and many others. It was during his winning sprees that Charles Howard demanded for a match race with another champion racehorse of those times, ironically from the same sire who sired Seabiscuit’s sire, Hard Tack. War Admiral was in conventional terms, Seabiscuit’s uncle and his most rewarding yet challenging rival. rnThe time was ripe for a match race, one that would decide who the better of the two was; the Triple Crown Champion War Admiral or the Californian story of rags to riches, the Seabiscuit. rnThe Pimlico Special Race on November 1st 1938 witnessed Seabiscuit running under the reputed jockey and Red Pollard’s friend, George Woolf due to Red contracting serious injuries from a fatal fall off a training horse. The match race was won and Seabiscuit’s dominance over the racing arena was declared, however the Santa Anita Handicap stayed that one race that consistently eluded the superstar. rnHowever after landing a ruptured ligament, Seabiscuit went into layoff throughout 1939 only to be declared unfit to run again by vets, left in the company of his slow recovering long time jockey, Pollard. In the early 1940, the duo that had eventually healed in their mutual company was back to their winning ways with the victory at San Antonio. All that was left now was the Santa Anita Handicap. rnDespite a solid comeback from some major racehorses of the season, Seabiscuit maintained his stand and readied for the final countdown. After stalking the pack from a considerable distance for majority of the race, Seabiscuit finally displayed his signature late acceleration that appeared from the back consistently eliminating one horse at a time and eventually winning by a length and a half. That done, the winner, was now at peace. The Hundred Grander, as the Big Cap was addressed in those days owning to its purse prize, was now under his belt and also his last race out of 89 starts and 33 wins. rnSeabiscuit was officially retired on 10th April, 1940. Retiring to stud, Seabiscuit sired more than 100 foals though none came close enough in a racing career as impressive as their invincible sire. rnThe story of Seabiscuit was soon captured in a 1949 movie, The Story of Seabiscuit, followed by a biographical book Seabiscuit: An American Legend in 2001 that was later directed into another movie, Seabiscuit in 2003. rnTo explore more about him and race him again, check out the downloadable racing games on
www.horseracegame.com. The hope will never falter.