Seabiscuit: The Underdog Racehorse Who Captivated a Nation

On July twenty seventh, two thousand and three, the movie named Sea Biscuit is officially released, grossing over twenty million dollars in its first weekend, going on to make over almost one hundred and fifty million dollars worldwide, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards, about a scrappy horse that fought through adversity along with his jockey to become one of the greatest horses of all time. And here's the story today behind Sea Biscuit, the horse who was good enough to have a movie made after him almost seventy years after he was born. Today on Daily Sports History, Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day. And today's drivic question to listen out for is how much did Charles Howard pay for the rights for Sea Biscuit. Now, if you listen to our Secretariat episode, which also is a horse who had a movie made after him after the success of the movie Sea Biscuit, you know that lineage for these horses is huge, and it was the same for Sea Biscuit, who was the grandson of arguably one of the greatest horses of all time, Man of War and this lineage tracking determines how much a horse will cost when they're born, how much a horse will cost throughout their lifetime, and it usually determines the success they might have as a racehorse as well. And Sea Biscuit was known as a West Coast horse, although he was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in nineteen thirty three, grew up as a cult at the Caliborn Farms in Kentucky. He was undersized, had wobbly knees, and would often overeat. He wasn't the ideal racehorse and as they continue to train him, he even looked lazy and his trainers were more focused on another horse they had named Omaha, who would go on to win the nineteen thirty five Triple Crown. So because of this, Sea Biscuit was put into smaller races that you see at local race tracks because he didn't get the focus and they didn't see any promise in him, and he failed to win any of his first seventeen races and usually finished in the back of the field. But every now and then he would do something surprising. He would go on to set two records at different race tracks in the Northeast, which caught the attention of some other owners, and by his age two season, which is normally when racehorses begin the real push for the triple crown, he had raised thirty five times and only won five of them, finishing in second seven times, and he was offered to be sold for two thousand, five hundred dollars at the time, which is a little over fifty thousand dollars to day, which was actually a pretty good price for a horse back in the day, but nobody wanted to take a chance on Sea Biscuit. But after he set those records in the Northeast, he caught the eye of Smith, who was a trainer and told his employer, Charles Howard, who was an automobile entrepreneur, about him, and they actually purchased him for eight thousand dollars, which is almost two hundred thousand dollars today, which sounds like a lot for what he was going before, but he would more than make up for this investment, as with a new trainer who really gave him focus and adapted his training to Sea Biscuit rather than trying to put Sea Biscuit into the average training. It helped blossom Sea Biscuit into new heights, and the first race that Sea Biscuit ran for his new owner was on August twenty second, nineteen thirty six, and that's where he also got paired up with Red Pollard, who was a Canadian jockey who just loved horses. But his size was unorthodox for a jockey, as he stood five to seven and the ideal height for a jockey is closer to five feet flat. But Red and Sea Biscuit had a bond and they quickly grew with their connection with each other and won multiple races that first year, and then they went from the East coast to the west where Sea Biscuit really made a name for himself, where in nineteen thirty seven he won California's most prestigious race at Saint Anita, winning a purse worth over one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars, which today would be well over three million dollars. But this was important because this is when they really realized what Sea Biscuit had, as Sea Biscuit was not an average horse that liked to take the lead and run away with it. He needed something to push him. He needed something to Chase, and that's when he was at his best. That's when he really took off in nineteen thirty seven, where he won eleven of his fifteen races and was the leading money winner that year, winning over four hundred thousand dollars. Pretty good investment for that eight thousand dollars they bought him for, although he was not named the horse of the year. That went to War Admiral, who won the Triple Crown that season. A Biscuit mainly focused on races on the West coast, and this set up a great opportunity and horse racing fans wanted to see the East versus the West, Sea Biscuit versus War Admiral to see who was really the greatest horse that year. And interestingly enough, War Admiral was actually related to Sea Biscuit as War Admiral's father was Man of War and Sea Biscuit's grandfather was Man of War as well, so War Admiral was technically Sea Biscuits uncle, and Sea Biscuits team tried to do whatever they could to set up a match race with War Admiral as they wanted to be named the best horse in America, but they had already won the Triple Crown. They didn't need to prove anything. Those were the biggest races. Although Sea Biscuits team continued to try to negotiate a possible match, and they would even let War Admiral set the rules, but to try to battle this, they entered Sea Biscuit in every race that War Admiral was gonna race, and every time War Admiral would be a scratch from that race. And they would continue to do this until they could face off against war Admiral to show who was the better horse, until Sea Biscuits team said, you guys need to decide the distance, the setup, everything, the location. You guys pick every single thing so they could not dispute the outcome. And then on November first, nineteen thirty eight, Sea Biscuit and War Admiral were finally set to face off against them in the matchup of the century. The event was going to be a one and three sixteenth mile at the Pimico Racecourse in Maryland and it would be a non gate start with over forty thousand people in attendance and forty million listening on the radio, and War Admiral came in as a favorite one to four by the oddsmakers, and this is where and given all the provisions, is how they trained Sea Biscuit to head into this matchup of the century as Sea Biscuit was a guy that had to come from behind, but War Admiral was a guy that strengthened throughout the race, and they didn't want War Admiral to get too far ahead so Sea Biscuit would stay back and just give up. So they trained him with the bell so they could have him start fast right away instead of his normal catch up from behind. But there was also another issue for Sea Biscuit, as Red Pollard, his jockey that he had a great connection with, got injured training another horse and could not participate in this race, so fellow jockey George Wolf took over one of the biggest horse races of all time. And when the bell finally rang in this matchup of the Century, Sea Biscuit broke in front and took the lead by a length after twenty seconds, and halfway down the back stretch, Ward Admiral started to cut into that lead, gradually pulling neck and neck with Sea Biscuit, and when they came around that last turn, Sea Biscuit was a nose ahead and slow, they stretched out his lead little by little, finishing with a four length win over war Admiral, and that's despite war Admiral running his best time at that disc. As a result of this, Seabiscuit would be named American Horse of the Year for nineteen thirty eight and became one of the most famous figures in America at the time. Everyone loved him because he wasn't just this guy that had a perfect record. In fact, he ended his career with a thirty three fifteen to one record, but he would still be inducted into the Horse Racing Hall of Fame and have a statue of himself at sant Anita Park. Unfortunately, after this, he would suffer a fall in the nineteen thirty nine year, which caused him to miss basically in the entire year. But on February ninth, nineteen forty, he would race again, winning his final race, and on April tenth that same year, they would officially announce his retirement from racing. And at the time he was the all time leading money winner in the history of horse racing, and he would be put out to stud where he sired over one hundred fouls, but Unfortunately, he would suffer a heart attack in nineteen forty seven and pass away, but his legacy lives on as he embodied the American spirit. He wasn't the biggest, he wasn't the fastest. He was a fighter, and that's what everyone came onto. You wanted him to win. He was the true underdog story, and that's why his movie Seabiscuit is one of the best horse movies ever made, and people latch onto that because it is a true underdog story. And I hope you enjoy This true underdog story is a great one for all of us to learn from and be motivated that even if we get down, we can always write ourselves and come back and win as well. And I want to encourage you guys to spread the word about Daily Sports History however you would like to, if you want to send a text, if you want to send something out on social media, any way you want to be internally grateful by me. The more we grow, the more I can do for you. I want to get back to seven days a week, maybe even start doing some more exclusive videos on YouTube. I have great plans for the show, but we also need more people to listen and that's where you come in because word of mouth. It's the greatest way for us to grow. But don't forget to come back tomorrow for more daily sports history. And did you catch the answer to today's trivia question how much did Charles Howard pay for Seabiscuit? And the answer was eight thousand dollars, which is almost two hundred thousand dollars today