Was the Music for Seabiscuit Ever Used Again
P resident Franklin D Roosevelt had a lot on his plate at the White Firm on November i 1938. Nazi Germany was building up for World War Two. The stock marketplace was struggling to find a mode to come out of the Great Depression. And the country nearly went into a panic two days earlier when a young producer named Orson Welles broadcast a fictional alien attack on America with "State of war of the Worlds."
But during a chiffonier meeting, he stopped all business of presiding over the nation to mind to the radio broadcast of a race betwixt two horses 40 miles up the road in Baltimore.
FDR, similar an estimated 40 million people listening around the world, was absorbed by the lucifer race at Pimlico Race Class between Seabiscuit and War Admiral – one of the virtually anticipated sporting events of the 20th century.
"Horse racing was in its heyday, and Seabiscuit was an enormous cult hero," said Laura Hillenbrand, author of the best-selling book "Seabiscuit."
"He was the number one newsmaker in 1938, a star with the kind of magnitude you lot don't come across today."
This race betwixt ii legendary horses was an upshot for the times, with America trying to climb out of the Smashing Depression. "It captured the imagination of the public," said Edward Bowen, author of "War Admiral."
"It had all kinds of social implications," he said.
"The race gave people a temporary respite from the daily hardships caused by the Nifty Low," said Allan Carter, historian at the National Museum of Racing.
Seabiscuit was the underdog, the Cinderella Human of racing. "He was the horse from the other side of the tracks who became a champion," Hillenbrand said.
War Admiral was the imperial ruler of racing, the son of the neat Homo O'War (though Seabiscuit was related every bit well) who had won racing'south Triple Crown in 1937, an aristocratic horse that seemed unbeatable.
And, 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. War Admiral was the favorite of the established East Coast, while Seabiscuit was the upstart from West Coast racing.
"It actually was a territorial affair," said horse trainer and racing historian John Shirreffs. "Anything west of the Rockies in those days in racing was non really taken seriously. That helped make this a big national event."
Friction match racing between two horses had been common in the 18th and 19th century, only had get less common in the 20th century. Still, there were some historic one-on-one races that took place, but none every bit big as Seabiscuit vs. War Admiral.
Seabiscuit, who was besides related to Man O'War through his son, Hard Tack, had fallen out of favor with its owners, a lazy, underachieving three-yr-old who was pawned off to equus caballus owner Charles Howard for just $8,000 in 1936.
Howard hired trainer Tom Smith to work with Seabiscuit, and, as has been well documented in books and motion-picture show, he and jockey Cherry-red Pollard began a remarkable rehabilitation of the previously-disappointing horse. Later winning a few races in the Eastward, Howard shipped Seabiscuit out West, where he would go the darling of racing and established his reputation as a winner. He would win 11 of 15 races in 1937 and was leading money winner in horse racing – the same year that State of war Admiral was winning the Triple Crown and given the prestigious American Horse of the Year Honour.
Horse racing dominated the sports pages during this time, and sportswriters began clamoring for a match race between State of war Admiral and Seabiscuit. "A horse race had the potential to concenter a frenzy that would be hard to imagine today," Bowen said.
"Equus caballus racing occupied a college place in the public consciousness than it does now. Baseball, battle and horse racing were the dominant sports of the fourth dimension. And this horse race had all the ingredients that made a terrific story."
It had a hero – Seabiscuit – and a villain in War Admiral.
"The media made War Admiral the villain," Bowen said. "Bob Considine, ane of the top sportswriters of his time, wrote an outlandish column that painted War Admiral as a spoiled kid who never had to work difficult in his life. It was completely trumped up, but it reflected the image that other people had – that War Admiral was not a true champion. He had a piece of his hoof sliced off in the Belmont Stakes and even so won the Triple Crown. He was a very game race horse himself."
His owner, though, Samuel Riddle, was not game for a match race against Seabiscuit. At least not in the beginning.
Howard, Smith and Pollard were willing participants, eager for a run a risk for their equus caballus to get up against the Triple Crown champion. The owner of Pimlico Race Course, home of the Preakness, Alfred Vanderbilt, was eager to host the race. Merely Riddle aghast several times at attempts to make the friction match race.
"Horse racing in the Due west was considered second rate," Hillenbrand said. "State of war Admiral's owner did not consider it dignified to have his horse run against a horse similar Seabiscuit."
Howard worked the media to create pressure for the race. Weather, scheduling and money bug thwarted attempts to stage the race at various tracks effectually the country. Later repeated offers by Vanderbilt, Riddle finally agreed to the race, for a surprisingly low handbag of $15,000. But it had get a pride issue at that point. Each possessor was determined to show their horse was the best in the land.
Riddle, however, dictated the terms, and ane cardinal term appeared to heavily favor his horse.
War Admiral did not fare well in starting gates. He hated the contraptions, and cut off a slice of his hoof struggling in the gate coming out of the Belmont Stakes, but was such a bully equus caballus, nonetheless managed to win the race.
If Riddle was going to race his prize horse against Seabiscuit, he wanted it without a starting gate. They would use a bong to offset the race, which gave the advantage to War Admiral. He was a speed horse – a fast starter -- and the horse that got out front kickoff in these match races oft wound up winning. Seabiscuit liked to run with the pack and so take the lead.
Remarkably, Smith would change Seabiscuit'due south racing style – something very difficult to do to a horse at this stage of their racing career. Secretly, he set upward an alarm clock to go Seabiscuit to take off at the audio of a bell, until Seabiscuit became fast correct out of the interruption.
Earlier the race, Pimlico's starting bell mysteriously disappeared, then track officials asked Smith if they could use his bell. "No one was ever able to confirm if Tom (Smith) took it," Hillenbrand said. "Simply reporters said in that location was a sparkle in his eye when asked about information technology."
An important, emotional part of the Seabiscuit story was the rider. In February 1938, his jockey, Red Pollard, fell while riding Fair Knightess, another Howard horse. Pollard suffered breast and rib injuries, along with a cleaved arm. Howard picked a friend of Pollard's and a successful jockey, George Woolf, to ride Seabiscuit.
It rained in Baltimore in the days leading upward to the race, and Seabiscuit did non like muddy tracks. The night before the face up, Woolf walked the rails in the dark, and found one detail rails that was hardened a few feet from the rail. It would be Seabiscuit's path to victory.
The match race dominated the news leading up to the consequence. The land awaited the showdown betwixt two great horses. Vanderbilt feared that Pimlico, which could handle a crowd of about 15,000 comfortably, couldn't handle the crush of people that would want to run across the race. So he scheduled it on a Tuesday, figuring the work solar day would go on the crowd down.
But the country stopped for Seabiscuit vs. War Admiral. More than twoscore,000 people descended on the Baltimore track. An estimated 40 million more – including FDR – were listening on the radio.
"They didn't know what to do with all the people," Hillenbrand said. "They funneled 10,000 people into the infield. People were hanging from the rafters in the grandstand. Thousands more than were exterior the rail, hanging from copse, standing on rooftops. All of America was belongings its breath for this race."
Hundreds of reporters descended on Pimlico. The runway was lined with newsreel cameras. Here is how the legendary Grantland Rice, reported on the race:
"A little equus caballus with the heart of a lion and the flight feet of a gazelle yesterday proved his place every bit the gamest thoroughbred that ever faced over an American rail.
"In one of the greatest match races ever run in the ancient history of the turf, the valiant Seabiscuit not simply conquered the keen War Admiral but, beyond this, he ran the beaten son of Man O'War into the clay and dust of Pimlico…..the drama and the melodrama of this match race, held earlier a record crowd keyed to the highest tension I have seen in sport, set an all-fourth dimension mark."
Seabiscuit, who was 2-1 on the board at mail time, while State of war Admiral was 1-to-4 on the lath shocked State of war Admiral by getting off to a stunningly fast start and wound upward winning the race by four lengths, posting a time of 1:56 3/5, breaking the track record.
Thousands of fans descended on the rails. It was a glorious, celebrated moment on the American landscape, with each horse playing its part. Seabiscuit was America's darling, but War Admiral was his dance partner to racing immortality, the two of them stopping the earth together on the first day of November in 1938.
Thom Loverro is a Washington, D.C.-based writer , who also co-hosts a sports talk radio testify on ESPN 980 in Washington and is the author of xi books.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/nov/01/seabiscuit-war-admiral-horse-race-1938-pimlico
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