21 Facts About Seabiscuit

Seabiscuit was a champion thoroughbred racehorse in the United States who became the top money-winning racehorse up to the 1940s.

Seabiscuit beat the 1937 Triple Crown winner, War Admiral, by four lengths in a two-horse special at Pimlico and was voted American Horse of the Year for 1938.

Seabiscuit was foaled in Lexington, Kentucky, on May 23,1933, from the mare Swing On and sire Hard Tack, a son of Man o' War.

Seabiscuit was named for his father; "sea biscuit" is another name for hardtack, a type of cracker eaten by sailors.

Seabiscuit was undersized, knobby-kneed, and given to sleeping and eating for long periods.

Fitzsimmons saw some potential in Seabiscuit but felt the horse was too lazy.

Seabiscuit was relegated to a heavy schedule of smaller races.

Seabiscuit failed to win any of his first 17 races, usually finishing back in the field.

Seabiscuit was rapidly becoming a favorite among California racing fans, and his fame spread as he won his next three races.

Seabiscuit's winning streak was snapped, but the season was not over; Seabiscuit won his next three races before finishing the year with a second-place at Pimlico.

In 1937, Seabiscuit won 11 of his 15 races and was the year's leading money winner in the United States.

Woolf's first race aboard Seabiscuit was the Santa Anita Handicap, "The Hundred Grander" the horse had narrowly lost the previous year.

Seabiscuit was drawn on the outside, and at the start was impeded by another horse, Count Atlas, angling out.

Seabiscuit worked his way to the lead but lost in a photo finish to the fast-closing Santa Anita Derby winner, Stagehand, who had been assigned 30 pounds less than Seabiscuit.

Seabiscuit, on the other hand, was a pace stalker, skilled at holding with the pack before pulling ahead with late acceleration.

Smith knew these things and trained Seabiscuit to run against this type, using a starting bell and a whip to give the horse a Pavlovian burst of speed from the start.

Two hundred yards from the wire, Seabiscuit pulled away again and continued to extend his lead over the closing stretch, finally winning by four lengths despite War Admiral running his best time for the distance.

Seabiscuit died of a probable heart attack on May 17,1947, in Willits, California, six months before his grandsire Man o' War.

Seabiscuit is buried at Ridgewood Ranch in Mendocino County, California.

In 2009, after an eight-year-long grassroots effort by Maggie Van Ostrand and Chuck Lustick, Seabiscuit was honored by the United States Postal Service with a stamp bearing his likeness.

Seabiscuit ran 89 times at 16 different distances over the course of his career.