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By Harold Washburn

HORSE TAILS
By Lindsey Toy
As told to her by
Harold Washburn

 

Photos by:

Tales of Seabiscuit

The Seabiscuit Story - a local connection .. by Eileen White

This summer horse enthusiasts broke from the turnstiles and jockeyed for the best theater seats to view the epic drama about three men and little knobby-kneed thoroughbred named Seabiscuit The celluloid reels spun the tale of the down and out horse that inspired post-depression America, and when the story was told and the lights came up, the new generation of Seabiscuit fans sprung out of the theater doors, broke toward their cars and drove to their own finish lines called home.

As they cooled down from the cinematic workout, the names Charles Howard, Red Pollard and Tom Smith were discussed around office coffee pots and cubicles, tack rooms and trail rides. Many may have recounted how Seabiscuit won the "Big Cap"…and may have freely used the term like a veteran turf writer.
But a few weeks have passed and American’s minds are occupied with back-to-school sales and which college football team is ranked number one in the nation. What will be remembered of the lives of the characters that are at the center of the Seabiscuit story? Perhaps a few of the more avid fans that read the book penned by Laura Hillenbrand will know that Seabiscuit lived out his retirement at Ridgewood Ranch and died at the relatively young equine age of fourteen years. Even fewer turf fans will be interested in the Charles Howard’s racing stable that continued to race many of Seabiscuit’s progeny.

After reading the epilogue in Seabiscuit: An American Legend, one would think that Tom Smith only trained one more horse after 1947, when he won the Kentucky Derby with Jet Pilot, then virtually disappeared off the backstretch radar. But his name did not disappear from racing programs, and so now, to tell the story of how Seabiscuit’s trainer had ties to Illinois racing…I’ll talk for silent Tom.

Tom Smith was not forgotten or unappreciated after his days of training for Charles Howard. Hillenbrand’s epilogue recalls that some questionable and unfortunate circumstances lead to the revoking of Smith’s training license. He would go to work for Elizabeth Arden Graham, a woman who believed in him and cleared his name in the backstretch controversy. Graham was known to grow through trainers "like chewing gum" as described by Hillenbrand. But she believed in Smith’s ability to train her horses and he in kind repaid her loyalty by giving her stable a win in the 1947 Kentucky Derby.

Hillenbrand mentions Smith training for Graham and winning the 1947 Derby, but she does not acknowledge Tom Smith’s employment with the Illinois-based Ada L. Rice stable. The only additional comments regarding Smith’s post-Seabiscuit training career are "He descended into obscurity just as he has risen from it. He eventually parted with Graham and wound up training a single horse at Santa Anita." Generally, readers are left with an impression of Tom Smith as a man who rarely trained after 1947 and eventually died a lonely death. Reference note : refer to pages 331-333 of Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand that discusses Tom Smith’s last years as a trainer.

During the 1930’s when Smith was developing the racing stable for Charles Howard, another farm located in the heart of the nation was laying the groundwork that would lead to a future partnership with the trainer. It all began in 1929, when Tom Smith was 50 years old and managing "Ten Ton" Irwin’s racing circuit. At the same time a Chicago couple purchased over 1000 acres of farmland near the west suburban town of Wheaton. This gentleman farmer and his talented skeet-shooting wife named the new estate "Danada" a poetic, non-Spanish combination of their given names, Dan and Ada Rice. Mr. Rice, ever the sportsman, enjoyed hunting, golfing and competitive shooting. He owned a football franchise with actor Don Ameche and also held partial ownership in three racetracks, Hialeah, Washington Park and Arlington Park. They farmed the land, raised draft horses and dogs and grew trees by the acre-full.

Mrs. Rice attended the races in Chicago frequently. When she told her husband she would like to own a racehorse, Mr. Rice responded by purchasing 8 thoroughbred yearlings in 1943 at the Keeneland sales. Seven of the eight horses went on to win at the track. Among the Ada L. Rice stable’s early stars were Sirde and Snow Boots, who set a world’s record for 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita in 1946, covering the distance in 1:41 3/5. A remarkable coincidence that may have been foretelling the future was when, Snow Boots captured the Seabiscuit Handicap at Santa Anita in 1946. Snow Boots also is remembered for carrying the Rice colors of cerise and white for his first start, which also was the first race won by the Rice’s on June 3, 1944 at Hawthorne.

After the success of the seven runners in their stable, the Rice’s began to really get involved in the sport. In 1947 they purchased a portion of the famed Idle Hour Stock Farm of Col. E. R. Bradley to establish a breeding farm outside of Lexington, Kentucky. The Wheaton farm was expanded with the development of a half-mile training track that included a 4-position electronic starting gate and a large Kentucky-style barn staffed with a veterinarian and X-ray machine. The Wheaton farm served as headquarters for breaking and training the young horses. Over 1800 acres of gently rolling woods and meadows surrounded the stone mansion, two immaculate white barns and numerous paddocks. The Rice’s divided their time between their farms and a home in Florida. Summers were spent at Danada in Wheaton, where Mr. Rice was within a stone’s throw of the Chicago Golf Club, where Mr. Rice guested (and bested) numerous jockeys and celebrities on the links.

In 1948 their breeding operation began to roll, eventually producing the likes of Pet Bully (earned $365,702), Pucker Up ($283,760), Pia Star, Delta Judge and Lucky Debonair. With a growing thoroughbred business, Mr. Rice hired Tom Smith in 1947 to train for the Ada L. Rice Racing Stable and is the trainer of record for the talented colts Admiral Lea and Model Cadet.

By 1949 the Rice’s had entered the big leagues, not only by retaining Tom Smith as trainer, but with the Kentucky Derby entry of Model Cadet. Smith gave Dan and Ada Rice their first trip to the Kentucky Derby, a thrill every thoroughbred owner and breeder hopes for. This was the first of 4 visits by Danada Farm to try to win the run for the roses. Model Cadet finished back of the leaders in 7th place. But the Rice’s celebrated continued success in future Kentucky Derbies placing 6th in 1957 with Indian Creek, 1st in 1965 with Lucky Debonair and Advocator ran 2nd in 1966, losing by a neck to Kauai King. Even though Smith trained the first Kentucky Derby mount for the Rice’s, it would prove to be his fourth and last horse shipped to Churchill Downs for running on the first Saturday in May. Smith had previously trained Mioland (4th 1940), Porter’s Cap (4th 1941) and Jet Pilot who won the Kentucky Derby in 1947 for owner Elizabeth Arden Graham.

Tom Smith, still silent after 70 years, left the Ada L. Rice racing stable at the end of 1949 and returned to take over the Main Chance Farm horses of Elizabeth Graham. But one man from Illinois whose life crossed paths with Tom Smith was Lester Wander. Once a groom for Smith and the colt, Model Cadet, Lester worked his way up to head trainer at Danada Farm in Wheaton, Illinois.
In an Aurora Beacon-News article written in May 1970, Wander explained how he came to work for trainer Tom Smith. "My dad died in 1928 leaving my mother with five kids. We either got out and worked or we starved." Lester was 12 years old at the time.

"Well, like any kid, I loved horses. I was small in size, so I figured I’d get a job as a jockey. But I couldn’t even ride a bicycle. I’d fall off without handlebars! Really, I wasn’t too good a rider, but I did gallop horses quite a few years before I got too heavy."

Wander quit elementary school to work for "Bathhouse John" Coughlin, longtime alderman in Chicago’s 1st Ward, who maintained a racing stable of nearly 60 horses. As Wander cared for the horses, he traveled from the tracks of Chicago to New Orleans then to Santa Anita in California where he worked with the Brolite Farm.

"Tom Smith was training horses for the Rice’s then, and needed a man, so I went to work for him," he recalled. "Old Tom was a good horseman. He’s the one who made Seabiscuit into the great horse he was. Anyway, that’s when I went to rubbing. I groomed Model Cadet, and we’ve been together almost ever since. He was a two-year-old then, and doing pretty well in California. When he was a three-year-old, Model Cadet was shipped to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby and I went with him. That was 1949, and Olympia was the favorite. We thought we had a pretty good chance in the Derby, but there was some pretty good stock in the race." (Wander would go on to train several yearlings out of Olympia, including Pucker Up, winner of the 1957 Washington Park Handicap and awarded 1957 Handicap Mare honors).

"A horse named Ponder won that ‘Run for the Roses,’ the second successive Derby victory for Calumet Farm. Olympia finished sixth and Model Cadet was just behind in seventh place. Fourteen horses started that race. Model Cadet finished about the same way in the Preakness (7th) and we didn’t try for the Belmont. He was a ‘bad luck’ horse. Something was always happening to him. I remember that summer, he hurt himself and he was turned out to pasture for a whole year. Then he went back into training and won his first time out. He started 15 or 16 times and won about $85,000. He retired from racing when he was a six-year-old."

During the summer of 1949, when Model Cadet was recuperating, Wander, now an experienced 33-year-old horseman left the racing circuit. He hired on as the yearling trainer at the Rice’s main homestead, in Wheaton. "That’s the year we broke Pet Bully," Wander recalled. Pet Bully was one of the Rice’s best-known horses until Lucky Debonair won the Kentucky Derby in 1965.

Lester Wander continued on as the head trainer at Danada Farm, training the yearlings shipped up by Howard Endicott who managed the Lexington-based Danada Farm. Wander once again managed Model Cadet, one of several stallions that stood at the farm. It was a friendship that spanned four decades from the racetrack to the breeding shed.

With the death of Mrs. Rice in 1977, Wander relocated with his wife, Violet, to the warm training grounds of Ocala, Florida. He worked at Double Diamond Farm until his death in 1992. All that remains of the white ranch house that Lester and Violet lived in at Danada Farm is the concrete sidewalk and the birch tree she planted. Violet recalled, "I used to watch the horses run up and over the hill and out of site" as she looked beyond her backyard. The well-mannered, white-faced Model Cadet never left the farm, but remains at his only home, buried in the back pasture.

Harold Washburn is a Kentucky horseman that worked for Tom Smith and Danada Farm. He started out as Tom’s assistant with the Ada L. Rice racing stable, then managed yearlings and injured horses at the Wheaton farm. Washburn began, "When the Ada L. Rice stable hired Tom Smith, he was in New York. He picked up the horses in New York. That was in the fall of 1947. We took (the yearlings) to California and of course they turned 2-year-olds at the first of the year and then we raced them out there."

Washburn told of how he was hired, "I came from Detroit and went to Washington Park. I was getting on the outside horses and was looking for a good job and someone told me to go over and see Jimmy Smith. I didn’t know Jimmy Smith and I went over to see him. He told me Tom Smith was his father and that Tom, his dad, had taken over the Ada L. Rice stable. He had some horses and was breaking some yearlings that were throwing some riders in the shedrow. So Jimmy hired me to get on those yearlings."

One of the unruly yearlings was Model Cadet. The colt had thrown a rider which resulted in a broken collarbone injury. Washburn recalled, "You don’t break yearlings at the racetrack. He hired me to get on them and it was duck soup to me. They set me on Model Cadet and him buck-jumping me a bit in the shedrow, that was like me sitting in a rocking chair. So Jim got all excited and decided to hire me and sent me to California to his dad."

Washburn arrived carrying 132 pounds on his five foot eight frame, causing Tom Smith to question his son’s latest hire. "So when I got there I was a little bit heavier than most exercise riders," he explained. "So Tom kind of looked at me when Jim first sent me there and said ‘I ain’t got no elephants here to ride’. But after two or three days Jim said ‘you’re gonna need him, believe me.’ So after about a week or two there Tom was getting to know and understand me and began to use me."

"After he hired me, Tom started playing games with me and started putting me on bad horses. That’s how he was. That goes on all the time. I was so used to that. Pretty soon he got to know I knew horses and I knew people. Then in 30 days he was asking me who should I put on this horse or who should I put on this horse, and that’s the way it went on from there".

"So I stayed with him and ended up being his assistant. I took some horses to Chicago. Ten of them for Rice. Ran them in there and did pretty well at Washington Park. I won five races at the whole meet and I only had twelve horses there."

Rice only raced at Santa Anita in the winter. In early March they shipped back to Chicago and New York. "So I stayed (employed) with Tom and went to the farm (in Wheaton). I broke a batch of yearlings at the farm and that’s when I became pretty good friends with Ada."

Model Cadet was at the Wheaton Farm before and after the 1949 Triple Crown races. " A kid named Halfday went down there with him," Washburn remembered. "Tom only took Model Cadet and maybe his pony to Churchill Downs. They sent him back to me because he had problems."

"(In 1949) Rice asked me to go to California with Tom but I didn’t want to do it. Tom had already got another assistant, another foreman, and I thought I would be interfering. So he (Rice) told me to go to Los Angeles and wait for him." Washburn went briefly to Washington then returned down the West Coast. He continued, "So I called Dan and he said to stick around, to take some horses to Mexico, but that never panned out." In the next few months Tom Smith was let go by Dan Rice. Washburn stayed on to assist the new trainer in getting acquainted with the horses, then moved on to work for Louis B. Mayer.

Harold Washburn also provided his personal touch when managing the Rice’s string under Tom Smith. He explained, " I did most of the decorating and painting. I did her logos on the door. I designed her logos, the ARL in the diamond shape and hand painted them on her doors. I tell you what. That was a beautifully run stable. You should have seen it. A stable anyone would be proud of who was at the races."

The Thoroughbred of California reported the passing of Tom Smith and another horseman,William Patrick Kyne in the March 1957 issue. Kyne’s obituary was listed first, in a large, bold type set and showed a photograph of the former treasurer and general manager of Bay Meadows racetrack. Smaller text reports "Tom Smith Passes" in the lower right page and headlines the briefer eulogy to Smith.

Tom Smith was not forgotten when he passed on, but was honored at Santa Anita racetrack, when Mr. B.K. Beckwith placed a floral wreath at the base of the statue of Seabiscuit the day of Smith’s burial. Though Hillenbrand reports no one was present at Tom Smith’s funeral on January 23, 1957, he was survived by his widow, Janet; two daughters Erline Talbot and Vera Smith; and one son, James W. Smith.

How I happened across the Tom Smith/ Danada Farm story:

An amazing coincidence occurred in my life while I was reading Seabiscuit: An American Legend. I was two days into reading the book when I drove to the Univ. of Illinois,Urbana/Champaign to visit the cramped, musty archives that house the thoroughbred journals from that past 100 years. My goal that day was to complete my research on the 1949 and 1957 Triple Crown races. Though I had previously viewed the 1949 Kentucky Derby statistics, I did not mentally made the connection between the Tom Smith listed as trainer for Model Cadet, and the Tom Smith that I was captivated with in the book.

As with every time I have visited the University Library, I set up office in a little corner of the 2nd floor stacks, and proceeded to pour over the older editions of The Blood-Horse. Usually I focus my attention on the year-end Index that lists the noteworthy horses and owners alphabetically. But sometimes an article or photograph will catch my eye (unrelated to the Rice’s horses) and I will note it for a future article, but during this whole process I always keep my eyes alert to any font showing "Ada L. Rice". Well, that day my internal radar paid off.

While I was flipping to a page in the Dec 24, 1949 The Blood-Horse edition, I spotted the name Ada Rice. And what did I find? But a small 17 line, 1 column story stating that Tom Smith had resigned as trainer for Ada L. Rice and had returned to train for Elizabeth Graham. Since I was only 44 years old, and not of the Seabiscuit generation, I asked myself, "Is this the same Tom Smith in the Seabiscuit book, or is it such a common name that two men with this name have worked in racing?"

Continued research and a few phone calls to turf historians and librarians confirmed that Tom Smith went on to train for Ada Rice after his long alliance with Charles Howard. Whether Tom Smith ever visited the Wheaton farm is still a question to be answered. But knowing his association with the Wheaton farmland I love to roam compelled me to visit Santa Anita racetrack, and sign up as an ‘extra’ in the filming of the Seabiscuit movie.

I was in California on December 14, 2002, and I watched the filming of several ordinary thoroughbreds as they looped around the oval track, but in my heart I heard the thundering hooves of Seabiscuit and felt the warm breeze of Lucky Debonair swiftly crossing the finish line.

Similarities between Seabiscuit & Lucky Debonair

Bred on neighboring farms Both horses were bred on farms located on Old Frankfort Pike Road that runs in a northwesterly direction out of Lexington, Kentucky. Seabiscuit’s dam was bred at Blue Grass Heights Farm on the south side of the road. The breeding and birthplace of Lucky Debonair was Danada Farm, located on the north side of the same hilly stretch of Old Frankfort Pike.

Loved to run at Santa Anita

The thoroughbreds improved their early racing careers and win records when shipped from the East Coast to the West Coast. They both thrived at Santa Anita racetrack located just west of Los Angeles.

Shipped east to prove their mettle

To prove to the doubting public on the East Coast that they were champions. Seabiscuit and Lucky Debonair returned to race at the Eastern racetracks. Seabiscuit ran at Pimlico in Maryland, and beat the son of Man o’ War, War Admiral, in a match race in 1938. Lucky Debonair won the Bluegrass Stakes and lost by a neck in a muddy Forerunner at Keeneland just a few weeks prior to going on to win the 1965 Kentucky Derby.

Won the ‘Big Cap’

Both horses won the Santa Anita Handicap after recovering from what could have been career-ending injuries. Seabiscuit in 1940 and Lucky Debonair in 1966.

Two stablemates, Same name:

Both Charles Howard and Ada Rice owned a thoroughbred registered by the Jockey Club under the name Advocator. In February 1938, Advocator was a stablemate and training partner to Seabiscuit. Ada L. Rice’s colt born in 1963, and named Advocator was Lucky Debonair’s stablemate. The Danada Farm homebred went on to an impressive racing career, including 2nd in the Wood Memorial, Kentucky Derby, Met Mile and United Nations Handicap, and 3rd in the Belmont. Reference note: Advocator described on page 165 of the book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand.

Hired same trainer

Charles Howard, the owner of Seabiscuit, hired trainer Tom Smith from 1935-1942.

Dan and Ada Rice were the breeders and owners of Lucky Debonair, and hired trainer Tom Smith from 1947-1949. Though Smith did not train Lucky Debonair, he did enter Model Cadet in the 1949 Kentucky Derby for the Ada L. Rice racing stable. This was the first of 4 visits by Dan and Ada Rice to try to win the run for the roses. Model Cadet finished in 7th place and repeated the same performance in the Preakness. The other talented colt Smith trained for the Rice’s was Admiral Lea. Reference note: pages 331-333 discuss Tom Smith’s final years as a trainer.

Always to be remembered:

Both horses are honored with memorials; a life-size bronze Seabiscuit proudly overlooks the Santa Anita paddock where he was frequently saddled, and Lucky Debonair is honored by a bronze plaque that lies in a memorial park outside the barn he was stabled in as a yearling near Wheaton, Illinois.
 

Seabiscuit
1938 Horse of the Year

Hard Tack was certainly bred like a champion. His dam, Tea Biscuit, was sired by the great Rock Sand, who won the English Triple Crown and was one of the top sires in the country. His second dam, Tea's Over, produced the champion Ort Wells and the good mare Toggery, who produced several stakes winners. Tea's Over was by the great Hanover. Hard Tack was sired by the immortal Man o' War himself.

Yet due to a difficult temperament, Hard Tack was only a modest stakes winner, earning a mere $16,820 before bowing a tendon. In 1933 his book included only a handful of mares, including the well bred but poorly made broodmare Swing On, who had also done nothing to distinguish herself on the racetrack. Only her pedigree made her worth breeding at all. A daughter of the great Whisk Broom II, she was from the same female family as two-time Horse of the Year Equipose, then at the height of his career. Equipose was out of Swinging. Swing On was out of Balance. Both were out of Balancoire II. Swing On was later the third dam of Kentucky Derby winner Determine.

On May 23, 1933, Swing On had a bay colt by Hard Tack who was later named Seabiscuit. He grew up on Claiborne Farm, with his age mates including Flares, Snark, Tintagel, Forever Yours, and Granville. Snark and Seabiscuit were among the horses bred by Mrs. Gladys Phipps' Wheatley Stable, and when she came to inspect her yearlings in April of 1934, Bull Hancock had Seabiscuit hidden away, knowing she wouldn't be impressed. He was undersized, knobby, and refused to shed his winter coat. Twenty one years later Bull Hancock hid another yearling from Mrs. Phipps. That was the accident prone Bold Ruler.

The great trainer Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons had trained both Hard Tack and Swing On, and he hadn't been fond of either of them. He therefore could hardly be expected to get excited about their undersized son, especially when he came fully equipped with all the conformation faults of his dam, a dangerously sprung knee, and a good dose of his sire's willfulness.

The colt, nicknamed the Runt, did nothing to gain Sunny Jim's respect. The two had a personality clash that was never overcome, and with horses like Omaha, Granville, and Faireno in the stable, the trainer wasn't inclined to go out of his way to pamper what he saw as a claimer with an attitude problem. He worked the colt hard, and was said to have instructed his exercise riders not to spare the whip.

Fitzsimmons pawned Seabiscuit off on assistant trainer V. Mara, who took him to Florida for the winter.

Seabiscuit made his first start at Hialeah on January 19, 1935, and ran fourth. He ran again three days later. The trainer didn't expect victory. He was just trying to get the colt off his hands, sending him to post in a twenty-five hundred dollar claiming race. Seabiscuit closed well to earn second money, but wasn't claimed.

He raced again at that price, and was sixth. He faced the starter for the fifth time on March 8, and ran fourth. He then joined assistant trainer G. Tappen in Maryland.

There, Seabiscuit ran another five times in a span of twenty one days, but did no better than a second and two thirds. The son of Hard Tack then rejoined Sunny Jim's main string.

On the first of May Seabiscuit ran second in an allowance race at Jamaica. Three days later he ran again, this time well out of the money. He improved a tiny bit at Rockingham, hitting the board twice in three starts, and was sent against stakes company.

Still a maiden, Seabiscuit turned in a good effort to run third in the Juvenile Handicap, and was second three days later in a maiden special weight. He finally scored his first win on June 22, 1935, winning an allowance race by two lengths at Rockingham Park. His time of 1:00 3/5 equaled the track record for five furlongs.

Four days later Seabiscuit took the Watch Hill Claiming Stakes by two lengths in :59 3/5, breaking the track record in the process, but the winning form didn't last. The little bay only managed to place once in his next five starts, running second in an allowance race at Suffolk Downs.

At the end of September Seabiscuit was sixth behind future Kentucky Derby winner Bold Venture in an allowance race at Saratoga, was sixth again in the Babylon Handicap at Aqueduct, and two days later was third in the slop. He finally got to the winner's circle again after winning an allowance race, then ran fourth in the Eastern Shore Handicap.

A week later he was a well beaten ninth in the Remsen Handicap, and fared no better in the Constitution Stakes, finishing tenth. Given two weeks off, Seabiscuit won the Springfield Handicap at Agawam in track record time, then won the Ardsley Handicap at Empire City by three lengths, again setting a new record. He was second in the Pawtucket Handicap, and finished off the board in the Walden Handicap, coming home a bit lame and thus ending the season.
Seabiscuit had run thirty five times as a juvenile, winning five times, running second seven times, and earning $12,510. Three-year-old Omaha had run nine times, winning six races and $142,255. His Kentucky Derby victory alone netted $39,525.

As for Seabiscuit's former companions in the fields of Claiborne Farm, Tintagel had been sold to Marshall Field, and was named Champion Juvenile Colt. Forever Yours earned honors as the Champion Juvenile Filly for Mrs. Ethel V. Mars. Both had been bred by Bull Hancock himself. Belair Stud's Granville had won once in seven starts, but was destined for better things. Snark, too, had some glory in his future, and Flares went to England, where he avenged his full brother Omaha's defeat in the Ascot Gold Cup. Seabiscuit was to top them all, but he still had some hard days ahead of him.

He was used as a work horse for Granville. Legend has it that he remembered the colt from their days on Claiborne Farm, and actively tried to beat him in their trials. Horses have been known to do stranger things than that, and it seems that Seabiscuit did run harder in his works with Granville than he did when galloping alone. Whether he nursed an active grudge or simply liked the company can't be proven. The cranky disposition that Seabiscuit developed that winter was sometimes attributed to the fact that he was never allowed to win the matches with the Gallant Fox colt. The cause could have simply been pain in his inflamed knee, or a lack of recreation, but regardless of the cause, Seabiscuit became a stall walker, losing weight and condition. The habit didn't do his bad knee much good, either.

Seabiscuit began his sophomore campaign at Jamaica, running second and third in the space of five days. After a pair of fourths, he won an allowance race at Narragansett. Granville, in the meantime, lost his rider in the Kentucky Derby, then lost the Preakness in a photo finish.

Seabiscuit was badly outrun in the New Hampshire Handicap, sixth in an overnight handicap, and tenth in the Commonwealth Handicap before scoring again, this time in an allowance race at Suffolk Downs. He was fourth in the Miles Standish Handicap, then scored a six length win in the Mohawk Claiming Stakes. A week later he won an overnight handicap by four lengths. It was to be his last race in the Wheatley colors.

Silent Tom Smith had taken an interest in the bay son of Hard Tack, and bought him on behalf of Charles S. Howard for the sum of $7,500. Buying Seabiscuit was the turning point in Tom Smith's career. Once Seabiscuit began winning, he added to his employers growing stable. Coramine, Mioland, and Kayak II all won a number of important stakes for Silent Tom Smith, who even lasted a few years at Mrs. Elizabeth Arden Graham's Maine Chance Farm, winning the Kentucky Derby with Jet Pilot and handling the champions Beaugay, Myrtle Charm, and Star Pilot during portions of their careers.

The first thing Tom Smith did for Seabiscuit was provide him with a social life. He first tried putting a goat in the stall, but when the creature got between Seabiscuit and his dinner, the horse picked it up by the neck and set it firmly outside the door. So instead, the trainer put Pumpkin, the stable pony, in with Seabiscuit. Through the rest of his career, Seabiscuit either roomed with Pumpkin, or was put in the stall next door, and Silent Tom would cut a hole in the wall so the two horses could visit.

The trainer also devised a knee and ankle brace for Seabiscuit to wear in the stall, and kept the horse rather creatively bandaged. The horse's crankiness faded with time.

The story was that the first time Silent Tom worked his new charge, he rode the horse himself and Seabiscuit ran away with him. The horse only stopped when he realized his rider wasn't making any attempt to slow him down.
Red Pollard, a former boxer who had won only three stakes races in his entire career, became Seabiscuit's new regular rider, and the pair took a shine to each other immediately.

Seabiscuit next raced in Detroit, running in the Motor City Handicap, and ran fourth to Myrtlewood, that season's champion handicap mare. (She was to become the second dam of the champion filly Myrtle Charm, who was to be the third dam of Seattle Slew.)

Next came an overnight handicap, and Seabiscuit ran into bad racing luck but still got up for third. Then he won the Governor's Handicap, beating Professor Paul, who had been third in the Motor City Handicap, by a neck.
After running out of the money in the De La Salle Handicap, Seabiscuit ran one more time in Detroit, winning the Hendrie handicap by four lengths. Then it was on to River Downs in Ohio.

Seabiscuit turned in a pair of third place efforts, closing fast both times before running out of ground, and then won the Scarsdale Handicap at Empire City in a photo finish. He was third again when he ran out of ground in the Yorktown Handicap, then went to Bay Meadows and won the Bay Bridge Handicap by five lengths. In his final start of the season, Seabiscuit led from wire to wire to win the World's Fair handicap by five lengths. Having broken two track records in a row, he had earned some time off.

Granville in the meantime had won the Belmont Stakes, the Arlington Classic, the Travers Stakes, and the Lawrence Realization, earning Horse of the Year honors. Sunny Jim may have overlooked the well hidden talent in Seabiscuit, but he hadn't been wrong in his praise of the Gallant Fox colt.

When Seabiscuit arrived in California he began training for the upcoming Santa Anita Handicap. His training had to be stepped up a notch when he started to gain a bit too much weight. A newly hired groom had taken a liking to the colt, sleeping in his stall and smuggling him treats.

On February 9 he met the highly regarded horses Rosemont, winner of the Withers Stakes and the Narragansett Special, and Time Supply in the Huntington Beach Handicap and ran away from both, winning by four and a half lengths while Time Supply ran third and Rosemont didn't even hit the board.
Forced wide after suffering interference, he finished fifth in the San Antonio Handicap, but showed great courage with his closing drive. Rosemont was the winner.

Next, Seabiscuit made his first try at the world's richest horse race, the Santa Anita Derby. He came from behind to take a short lead at the head of the stretch, and lengthened it to a length. He seemed the sure winner when Rosemont emerged from the field and began a hard stretch drive in the middle of the track. He caught Seabiscuit napping, and won by a nose in the final stride.
Red Pollard blamed his own overconfidence for the loss, and the pair quickly set about making up for the defeat.

A week later Seabiscuit ran off with the San Juan Capistrano Handicap, winning by seven lengths in track record time. He took the Marchbank Handicap by three lengths, then won the Bay Meadows Handicap by a length and a quarter.
Seabiscuit returned to the east coast and in one of his toughest efforts held off Aneroid to win the Brooklyn Handicap by a nose. Rosemont was among the beaten field, as was 1936 Santa Anita Handicap winner Top Row.
Next he won the Butler Handicap at Empire City, giving away weight and winning by a length and a half even after being knocked into the rail repeatedly. He took the Yonkers Handicap by four lengths under 129 pounds, breaking another track record, and carried 130 pounds to victory in the Massachusetts Handicap after War Admiral was scratched.

Saddled with 132 pounds for the Narragansett Special, Seabiscuit met Wheatley Stable's Snark and four others on a sloppy track. Calumet Dick splashed home the winner by a length, while Seabiscuit ran third behind his former stablemate.
A month later he won the Continental Handicap at Jamaica by five lengths, and then showed true courage in dead heating with Heelfly in the Laurel Handicap while giving him twelve pounds. He carried 130 pounds to victory in the Riggs Handicap at Pimlico, then was nosed out by the speedy Esposa, who had beaten Discovery in the 1936 Merchants and Citizens Handicap, while giving her fifteen pounds in the Bowie Handicap.

Finished for the season, Seabiscuit returned to the west coast to train for the Santa Anita Handicap. He had earned $168,580 as a four year old, winning eleven of his fifteen races. He had lost two photo finishes, and had only been off the board once, in the San Antonio. He was named champion handicap horse, and he was also the season's leading money winner, but War Admiral was crowned Horse of the Year, having won the Triple Crown. That the two hadn't met was disappointing to both racing fans and Mr. Howard.

Red Pollard was seriously injured in the San Carlos Handicap, and Seabiscuit began his five year old season with a substitute rider, Sonny Workman. He scored a hard fought second in the San Antonio Handicap, getting nosed out by Aneroid while giving up twelve pounds. Silent Tom blamed Workman for the loss, and George Woolf was hired to ride Seabiscuit until Pollard recovered.
Seabiscuit's next race was his second try at the Big Cap. Eighteen horses went to post for the 1938 Santa Anita Handicap. Seabiscuit was the high weight at 130 pounds. Pompoon and Aneroid were assigned 120 pounds each. The three-year-old Stagehand somehow got in the race with an even hundred pounds, despite having won the Santa Anita Derby.

Badly impeded at the start, Seabiscuit struggled to make up ground. He came from twelfth to take the lead from Aneroid, but was nipped by the featherweight Stagehand in the final inches. Clem McCarthy wrote the next day:
"Seabiscuit, how great a horse - and how unfortunate! What kind of a race is it that makes such things possible? The pitting of a horse burdened with 130 pounds against one carrying an even hundred! Where are the reason, equity, the sportsmanship, involved? The money went to the three-year-old with a feather on his back. But nothing can ever give him the glory or take it away from the little horse with 130 pounds. A brilliant race, a wonderful race, a magnificent, a thrilling, a record-breaking race. Pile up the adjectives as you will. But one in which the best horse was unjustly beaten."

War Admiral, in the meantime, had won the Widener Cup at Hialeah. Both Arlington and Belmont Parks offered $100,000 purses to host a winner-take-all match race. Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons stated that Seabiscuit would win if the race took place, but Seabiscuit's connections would not let him go to post in such an event until Red Pollard could ride again.

While Pollard healed, Seabiscuit went to Mexico and won the Agua Caliente Handicap. He carried 133 pounds to victory in the Bay Meadows Handicap, and then went to New York to meet the Triple Crown winner.

Seabiscuit and War Admiral spent weeks enduring a media circus before the event was canceled. Seabiscuit's knee was badly inflamed. He was rested, and the meeting between the two champions was rescheduled. They would meet in the upcoming Massachusetts Handicap instead.

Disaster struck again when Red Pollard climbed aboard a problem horse and was slammed into the rail. Doctors told him he would never ride again, and would be lucky if he could even walk. George Woolf would have to ride Seabiscuit against War Admiral.

The day of the Massachusetts Handicap arrived, and while the weather was lovely the track was heavy. Seabiscuit still might have gone to post, but when he was unbandaged his tendon was found to be inflamed. To the fury of the stewards and the bitter disappointment of the record crowd, Seabiscuit was scratched after the track veterinarians took a look.

War Admiral proved not himself as well. Instead of going to the lead immediately, he hung back, and then lacked a stretch drive altogether. Previous juvenile champion Menow cantered to a remarkable eight length win while the Triple Crown winner faded to fourth.

When Seabiscuit returned to the races he closed fast after a bad start to finish second in the Stars and Stripes Handicap while conceding twenty three pounds to the winner, then carried 133 pounds again while winning the Hollywood Gold Cup.

A match race was arranged between Seabiscuit and Ligaroti, an Argentine-bred speedball who had won a number of stakes for owner Bing Crosby. The two were never more than a head apart, and in the end Seabiscuit won by a game nose. He had given away fifteen pounds.

Next it was back to the east coast for the Manhattan Handicap. Caught in traffic and forced wide, Seabiscuit was third. He redeemed himself by beating Menow in the Havre de Grace Handicap while giving him eight pounds.
Seabiscuit was beaten by the brilliant Jacola when he tried to give her twenty four pounds in the Laurel Stakes, and therefore he had lost his most recent race when the 'Match of the Century' finally took place in the Pimlico Special, which War Admiral had won the previous year.

War Admiral seemed to have all of the advantages. The conditions of the race included even weights and a walk up start. In a match race, the horse who gets the early lead has the advantage, and War Admiral was accustomed to showing the way, while Seabiscuit usually came from behind. But Silent Tom Smith had other plans. Seabiscuit was schooled carefully for the walk up starts, and he bolted away from the Triple Crown winner, leading from wire to wire and winning by four lengths.

Seabiscuit could have retired the undisputed champion of his day. The win over War Admiral had earned him Horse of the Year honors, and it didn't seem he had anything more to prove. When he ran second in an allowance race at Santa Anita in February, it seemed his racing days were over. He came back lame, and was retired to stud.

There was yet another chapter to be written, however, and Seabiscuit returned to the races at the age of seven. Horses simply were not brought out of retirement with success. It didn't happen. But Seabiscuit's connections were determined to try.

Red Pollard climbed up on the champion, claiming that they had four good legs between them, and Seabiscuit ran in an overnight handicap at Santa Anita. He gave ten pounds to Heelfly, with whom he had dead heated three years before, and finished third. He was out of the money entirely in the San Carlos Handicap.
Just when things seemed bleak, Seabiscuit streaked home the two and a half length winner in the San Antonio Handicap. He was assigned 130 pounds for his final try at the Santa Anita Handicap.

Red Pollard kept him out of traffic and close to the early leaders, then took command at the head of the stretch. At the wire it was Seabiscuit, a length and a half better than his stablemate, Kayak II. His time of 2:01 1/5 was a new track record. The win made him the all time leading money winner, topping Sun Beau by $60,986 with $437,730 in lifetime earnings. Seabiscuit was then permanently retired.

Visitors to King Ranch were warned not to mention Stymie, and one might have considered it tactful to avoid asking Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons about the deeds of Seabiscuit, but the trainer proclaimed his castoff to be a great horse, and in fact predicted his win over War Admiral.

At stud, Seabiscuit got some stakes winners, but never topped the charts. Whether he would have had more success had he stood outside of California can't be said. He often carried his owner on trail rides among the redwoods, and when he died on May 17, 1947 he was buried in a favored spot, although Charles Howard never revealed the exact location.

A life sized bronze statue of Seabiscuit stands at Santa Anita, reminding racegoers of his deeds. He entered the Hall of Fame in 1958 and was twenty-fifth on the end of the century poll published by Blood-Horse. The legendary Seabiscuit has been the subject of several books, including Ralph Moody's children's book Come on Seabiscuit, as well as a motion picture.