He would win 11 of 15 races in 1937 and was leading money winner in horse racing – the same year that War Admiral was winning the Triple Crown and given the prestigious American Horse of the Year Award. After winning a few races in the East, Howard shipped Seabiscuit out West, where he would become the darling of racing and established his reputation as a winner. Howard hired trainer Tom Smith to work with Seabiscuit, and, as has been well documented in books and film, he and jockey Red Pollard began a remarkable rehabilitation of the previously-disappointing horse. Seabiscuit, who was also related to Man O’War through his son, Hard Tack, had fallen out of favor with its owners, a lazy, underachieving three-year-old who was pawned off to horse owner Charles Howard for just $8,000 in 1936. Still, there were some historic one-on-one races that took place, but none as big as Seabiscuit vs. Match racing between two horses had been common in the 18th and 19th century, but had become less common in the 20th century. That helped make this a big national event.” “Anything west of the Rockies in those days in racing was not really taken seriously. “It really was a territorial thing,” said horse trainer and racing historian John Shirreffs. War Admiral was the favorite of the established East Coast, while Seabiscuit was the upstart from West Coast racing. War Admiral was the regal ruler of racing, the son of the great Man O’War (though Seabiscuit was related as well) who had won racing’s Triple Crown in 1937, an aristocratic horse that seemed unbeatable.Īnd, like the great match race of 1823 between Eclipse and Henry that became a battle between the North and the South, Seabiscuit and War Admiral was a geographical war. “He was the horse from the other side of the tracks who became a champion,” Hillenbrand said. Seabiscuit was the underdog, the Cinderella Man of racing. “The race gave people a temporary respite from the daily hardships caused by the Great Depression,” said Allan Carter, historian at the National Museum of Racing. “It had all kinds of social implications,” he said. “It captured the imagination of the public,” said Edward Bowen, author of “War Admiral.” This race between two legendary horses was an event for the times, with America trying to climb out of the Great Depression. “He was the number one newsmaker in 1938, a star with the kind of magnitude you don’t see today." “Horse racing was in its heyday, and Seabiscuit was an enormous cult hero,” said Laura Hillenbrand, author of the best-selling book “Seabiscuit.” FDR, like an estimated 40 million people listening around the world, was captivated by the match race at Pimlico Race Course between Seabiscuit and War Admiral – one of the most anticipated sporting events of the 20th century.
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