If ever there was a ‘rags-to-riches’ story in the history of horse racing, it is that of Seabiscuit. Foaled in Lexington, Kentucky on May 3, 1933, the diminutive colt was originally owned by Gladys Mills Phipps and her brother, Ogden Livingston Mills, under the Wheatley Stable banner, and trained by
James Edward ‘Sunny Jim’ Fitzsimmons. Despite powerful connections, Seabiscuit was still a maiden after 17 starts but, having won handful of run-of-the-mill races, eventually caught the eye
Robert Thomas ‘Silent Tom’ Smith at Suffolk Downs in East Boston, Massachusetts, as a three-year-old, in late June 1936. The grandson of Man o’ War was duly sold to businessman Charles Stewart Howard and so embarked on a journey that would make him an unlikely champion in his own right.
In his four-year-old campaign, in 1937, Seabiscuit won 11 of his 15 starts and was the leading money-earner in North America. The following season, as a five-year-old, by popular demand, he took on the 1937 Triple Crown winner, and Horse of the Year, War Admiral in a highly-anticipated match race for the newly-inaugurated Pimlico Special, billed as the ‘Race of the Century’, over 9½ furlongs at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. Ridden by George ‘The Iceman’ Woolf, Seabiscuit made the early running and, although joined by his younger rival in the back straight, drew away again in the closing stages to win by four lengths. He was voted Horse of the Year in 1938.
Seabiscuit died of a suspected heart attack on May 17, 1947 and was buried at Ridgewood Ranch, California, where his stud barn was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. His story has been told many times, most recently in ‘Seabiscuit: An American Legend’, written by Laura Hillenbrand and published in 1999, and its film adaptation, ‘Seabiscuit’, released in 2003; the latter was nominated for seven Academy Awards.