Why so many love the track

Rating: 10/10 (24 August 2005)

When I was very young, a long time ago, I bought a book called "Come On, Seabiscuit!" as a cheap, used paperback for a quarter. I was fascinated by the story then, and am just as fascinated by it now, as I am a lifelong horseplayer.
The lure of the racetrack is the potential, at any time, for the poor to rise above the rich, through merit, either at the betting windows or the owner's box. This movie focuses on the not-so-uncommon tale of a horse from the wrong side of the breeding shed to become a champion against all odds. For a movie based on facts from several generations ago, this one was more or less accurate, with a few liberties taken for the screen.
Seabiscuit, like his arch rival, War Admiral, was a grandson of the great Man O' War (the term "upset" in sports was coined after Man O' War's only career loss, to Upset, in the 1920 Travers). That is where the similarities end, however, as "the Admiral" was a majestic colt who was treated like royalty from the day he was born, while "the Biscuit" was all but abandoned as a serious racing prospect. Mistreated, he developed a temper that would later be focused towards glory on the track once he fell into the hands of owner Charles S. Howard (Jeff Bridges) and trainer Tom Smith (Chris Cooper).
As often happens when a horse hits a new barn, the new connections solved Seabiscuit's problems, and he did what I call "presenting as a new animal" once under their care. Like any former claimer turned stakes horse, Seabiscuit had to prove himself at every turn, but neither he, his jockey, or his owner and trainer, ever gave up. Everyone, including the horse, had their flaws, but they also had a key ingredient to the success story that would become this movie. Seabiscuit really was purchased for a rock-bottom price ($2,000 or $2,500), and once he was given a chance to develop properly, (he had been entered in several claiming races at the age of twenty months), he rose to the greatest heights of the sport. Once there, however, War Admiral was waiting for him, and the public remained unconvinced, as the odds in their match race showed.
The movie reminds us that most great things are accomplished by ordinary, even flawed, individuals, for we would never do anything great if we sat around waiting to become perfect before we tried. Even if our lives are in a shambles, the horses still have to be trained and ridden, and the bills still have to be paid. The star of the movie, the horse, just does what he does best and leaves it to his handlers to put it to use. All he demands in return is good food, a nice place to sleep, and some four-legged friends. To think that horses are not intelligent enough to figure out what is asked of them at the track is naive. Like all of nature's creatures, they are competitive, and they race even in the wild. Seabiscuit was a horse who enjoyed racing once he learned how to win, and who trusted his jockey implicitly once he found the right one.
Some trivia about the movie:
1. The match race was scheduled for the "first day in November, at Pimlico Race Course, when the track is fast and dry." War Admiral's connections refused to run on a wet track. (When the movie was released, Pimlico held a reenactment of the race in a driving rainstorm).
2. In the training sequence for the match race, Smith did not brush Seabiscuit's flank with a crop, but instead rode the horse himself and kicked him with spurs until the sound of the bell by itself caused Seabiscuit to jump into flight.
3. Pollard had recovered from his injury two months prior to the Santa Anita Derby rather than a few weeks, but it was true that his leg was questionable and that he was very vulnerable to injury.
4. The horses who portrayed Seabiscuit and War Admiral were California-based ex-claiming horses who were (IIRC) 11 and 6 years old. Neither horse would have run within a mile of the characters they played.
5. Pollard had taught Seabiscuit to stop whenever he said "Whoa," but he could not tell Georgie Woolf (Gary Stevens) this before the match race, as it would have ruined Seabiscuit's chances in future races.
This was an excellent story that was well-done as a movie. Stevens was excellent as Woolf, and appeared more like an actor playing a jockey than a jockey attempting to act.