All About Horses And More

Man O' War http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmGcgrxmy4Y

Considered to be the greatest thoroughbred racehorse of all time, Man O' War won 20 races out of 21 during his career just after World War I.This Stallion was foaled in year 1917 and was trained by Louis Feustel.In the early 1900s, there were no starting gates. Man O' War's jockey had to circle around with the other jockeys. They gathered their horses in a line behind a flimsy piece of webbing, known as the barrier and were sent away when it was raised.The only race that Man O' War lost was the Sanford Memorial Stakes, when he was still circling with his back to the starting line when the barrier was raised. After the jockey got Man O' War turned around, he was already far behind the rest of the racehorses. Despite of that rough beginning, he still finished at Second Place with a half-length behind the First place winner.Over Man O' War's two-year career, he set three world records, two American records and three track records.As a sire, Man O' War was impressive as well; producing more than 64 stakes winners and 200 various champions. Two of the more famous of his offspring were Battleship, who won the 1938 English Grand National steeplechase, and War Admiral, the 1937 Triple Crown winner. Another of his offspring, Hard Tack, sired Seabiscuit. His son War Relic was his most successful sire. Tiznow, Honour and Glory, and Bertrando are all sire-line descendants of Man O' War.This healthy race horse died at the age of 30 in 1947 of an apparent heart attack only one month after his longtime groom, Will Harbut. He was buried at the Kentucky Horse Park where his grace is marked with a statue by American sculptor, Herbert Haseltine. Man O' War was inducted in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1957. In the Blood-Horse magazine ranking of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, Man O' War was ranked No. 1.

Seattle Slew http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1QbL8fsWu8

Seattle Slew--the last living Triple Crown winner--died on May 7, 2002 at the age of 28. As one of only 11 Triple Crown winners in history, he is by default one of the greatest horses in the history of thoroughbred racing. Of those 11 legendary animals, Seattle Slew was the only one to complete the Triple Crown with an undefeated record, as well as the only one to have been purchased at a public auction. After retiring in 1978, Slew became one of the most important and successful stud horses in the history of the sport. He sired 1,066 foals including 102 stakes race winners. Among this impressive group of offspring was the 1984 Kentucky Derby winner, Swale. All told, Slew's offspring have won an amazing $76 million dollars at the race track. Slew's stud fee of $300,000 made him a very profitable horse even after his racing career was over. Slew wasn't a particularly attractive horse, but he had the toughness of a championship boxer and the sort of intestinal fortitude and desire that the great warriors--human or equine--can't be taught, but have to be born with. The Seattle Slew story began very modestly at a public auction in Lexington, Kentucky. The Keeneland Summer Yearling sale wasn't supposed to be the marketplace of champions, and the idea that this particular horse would ever amount to anything other than a farmhand was downright laughable. Slew looked clumsy, due primarily to a right forefoot that splayed outward and resulting in a shuffling gait at a trot. He also wasn't a majestic beast like his predecessor by a few years, Secretariat. Slew was borderline ugly. So ungainly a creature was he that he was given the less than inspiring nickname "Baby Huey" by the Keeneland staff. He was purchased by two couples (Karen and Mickey Taylor and Jim and Sally Hill) for $17,500. What wasn't apparent at the yearling sale was the intangibles that make up a championship thoroughbred--poise under pressure, love of competition, toughness, heart and desire. The Taylor's and Hill's had stumbled onto an equine Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan who's competitive fire quickly became apparent to the trainers that worked with him and the jockeys that rode him. His first race came at Belmont in 1976, and the three races he entered--and won--as a 2 year old gave a hint of what was to come.
As a three year old, he quickly gained notice by winning his three Derby prep races, including the prestigeous Wood Memorial. In the Derby, Slew got off to a terrible start as he stumbled from the gate much like War Emblem did in this year's Belmont. Unlike 2002's Triple Crown contender, however, Slew was able to recover from that miscue and basically force his way through a pack of other horses to position himself at the front of the field at the quarter mile pole. He went on to win the Derby by a length and 3 quarters. Another tough victory in the Preakness set up his Triple Crown winning run at the Belmont, which he won by 4 lengths.
Slew ran in a few races as a 4 year old but in the pre-Breeders' Cup days there wasn't as many opportunities for an older horse. He retired to stud in 1978. We've already discussed his prowess in the breeding shed, siring a number of first rate horses such as the aforementioned Swale, and the 1992 Belmont champ AP Indy. Slew stood at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Kentucky from 1985 until earlier this year when he was moved to Hill 'n' Dale Farm in Lexington, KY following a spinal operation.
In some ways, Slew had much in common with the heavyweight championship reign of Larry Holmes. He came so quickly on the heels of such incredible excellence--Slew was forever in the shadow of 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat, Holmes on the heels of Muhammed Ali--that he never gained the apprecation he deserved during his prime. In hindsight, however, it has finally been noted what an exceptional horse he really was. Jockey Angel Cordero, who rode Slew during the twilight of his career noted "If I had a chance to take any horse in the world, if someone said your life is depending on riding one horse to win, I would take (Slew). I rode 44,000 horses, but he was special, he was different. He was muscled, like a wrestler. He ran different than any other horse. It was like he came from another planet."
Slew was laid to rest at Hill 'n' Dale Farm in Lexington, under a statue.

Seabiscuit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5JoVTByDsw

Seabiscuit (May 23, 1933—May 17, 1947) was a champion thoroughbred racehorse in the United States. From an inauspicious start, Seabiscuit became an unlikely champion and a symbol of hope to many US citizens during the Great Depression. Seabiscuit became the subject of a 1949 film, The Story of Seabiscuit, a 2001 book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend, and a 2003 film, Seabiscuit, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Contents[hide]
1 Early days
2 1936/37: The beginning of success
3 The best horse in America
3.1 Match of the century
4 Injury and return
5 Seabiscuit in popular culture
6 Pop culture references
7 Pedigree
8 Notes
9 References
10 External links

Early days

Seabiscuit was born from the mare Swing On and sired by Hard Tack (son of Man o' War). The son was named for the father; the term "sea biscuit" (or sea bread) is the name for a type of cracker eaten by sailors, known as hardtack.[1] The bay colt grew up on Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky. He was owned by Gladys Mills Phipps. He was undersized, knobby-kneed, and not much to look at, and was given to sleeping and eating for long periods. Initially, he was trained by the legendary Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, who had taken Gallant Fox to the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Fitzsimmons saw some potential in Seabiscuit, but felt the horse was lazy, and with most of his time taken training Omaha (a Triple Crown winner), Seabiscuit was relegated to a punishing schedule of smaller races. He failed to win his first ten races (not uncommon in horse racing), and most times finished back in the field. After that, training him was almost an afterthought and the horse was sometimes the butt of stable jokes. As a two-year-old, Seabiscuit raced thirty-five times (a heavy racing schedule), coming in first five times, and finishing second seven times. Still, at the end of the racing season, he was occasionally used as an outrider horse. The next racing season, the colt was again less than spectacular and his owners sold the horse to automobile entrepreneur Charles S. Howard for $8,000, the equivalent of about $100,000 in 2007. This was no bargain price for a horse, and the sale price proves Fitzsimmons thought Seabiscuit had potential, and was also probably going to be a decent racehorse sire. Seabiscuit was not as bad a runner for Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons as the 2003 movie and even the book by Hillenbrand made him out to be. Many thoroughbred racehorses never break their maiden and do not win even one race. However, Seabiscuit had not lived up to his racing potential when Howard bought him.

1936/37: The beginning of success

His new trainer, Tom Smith, understood the horse, and his unorthodox training methods gradually brought Seabiscuit out of his lethargy. Smith paired the horse with Canadian jockey Red Pollard (1909-1981), who had experience racing in the west and in Mexico, but was down on his luck. On August 22, 1936 Seabiscuit raced for the first time for his new jockey and trainer, in Detroit, without impressing anyone. But improvements came quickly and in their remaining eight races in the East, Seabiscuit and Pollard won several times, including Detroit's Governor's Handicap (worth $5,600) and the Scarsdale Handicap ($7,300) at Empire City Race Track in Yonkers, New York.
In early November 1936, Howard and Smith shipped the horse to California in a rail car. His last two races of the year were at Bay Meadows racetrack in San Mateo, California (just south of San Francisco), and gave some clue as to what was to come. The first was the $2,700 Bay Bridge Handicap, run over one mile (1.6 km). Seabiscuit started badly, but, despite carrying the top weight of 116 lb (53 kg), ran through the field before easing up to win by five lengths, in a time only three fifths of a second off the world record.[citation needed] This form was carried over to the World's Fair Handicap (Bay Meadows' most prestigious stakes race) with Seabiscuit leading throughout.
For 1937, Howard and Smith turned their attention to February's Santa Anita Handicap. California's most prestigious race was worth over $125,000 (over $1.5 million in 2006 dollars) to the winner and was known colloquially as "The Hundred Grander". In their first warm up race at Santa Anita Park, they again won easily. In his second race of 1937, the San Antonio Handicap, Seabiscuit suffered a setback. Bumped at the start and then pushed wide, the horse trailed in fifth, with the win going to the highly-fancied Rosemont.
The two would be rematched in the Hundred Grander just a week later. After half a mile (800 m), front runner Special Agent was clearly tired and Seabiscuit seemed perfectly placed to capitalize, before inexplicably slowing on the final straight. The fast closing Rosemont edged out Seabiscuit by a nose. The defeat was devastating to Smith and Howard, and widely attributed in the press to a riding error. Pollard, who had seemingly not seen Rosemont over his shoulder until too late, had lost the sight in one eye in an accident during a training ride (not during a boxing match as implied in the 2003 film), a fact he hid throughout his career. Regardless, the horse was rapidly becoming a favorite among California racing fans, and his fame spread as he won his next three races, before Howard chose to again relocate the horse, this time for the more prestigious Eastern racing circuit.
Once there, Seabiscuit's run of victories continued unabated. Between June 26 and August 7, he ran five times, each time a stakes race, and each time he won, despite steadily increasing imposts of up to 130 lb (59 kg). The seven consecutive stakes victories tied the record.[citation needed] On September 11, Smith accepted an impost of 132 lb (60 kg) for the Narragansett Special. On race day, the ground was slow and heavy, and entirely unsuited to "the Biscuit", even without the heaviest burden of his career. Smith wished to scratch, but Howard overruled him. Seabiscuit was never in the running, and trudged home in third, four lengths behind Calumet Dick, who was carrying only 115 lb (52 kg). The streak was snapped, but the season was not over. Seabiscuit won his next three races (one a dead heat) before finishing the year with a valiant second place at Pimlico.
In 1937, Seabiscuit won eleven of his fifteen races and was the leading money winner in the United States that year. On the west coast, he had become a celebrity. His races were followed fanatically on the radio and newsreel and filled hundreds of column inches in the newspapers. Howard, with his business acumen, was ready to cash in, marketing a full range of merchandise to the fans. The Eastern racing establishment was considerably less impressed. The great three-year-old, War Admiral, had won the Triple Crown that season and was voted the most prestigious honor, the Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year.

The best horse in America

In 1938, as a five-year-old, Seabiscuit's success continued. On February 19, Pollard suffered a terrible fall while racing on Fair Knightess, another Howard horse. With Pollard's chest crushed by the weight of the fallen horse, and his ribs and arm broken, Howard tried three jockeys, before settling on George Woolf, a great rider and old friend of Pollard, to ride Seabiscuit.
Woolf's first race was the Santa Anita Handicap, the "hundred grander" that Seabiscuit had narrowly lost the previous year. Seabiscuit was drawn on the outside, and from the start, was impeded by another horse, Count Atlas, angling out. The two were locked together for the first straight and by the time Woolf had his horse disentangled, they were six lengths from the pace. The pair battled hard, but were beaten by the fast finishing Santa Anita Derby winner, Stagehand, which had been assigned 30 pounds (13.6 kg) fewer than Seabiscuit. However, not all was lost for the Howard family as Stagehand was owned by Charles' son Maxwell Howard.
Throughout 1937 and 1938, the media speculated about a match race with the seemingly invincible War Admiral (also sired by Man o'War, Seabiscuit's grandsire). The two horses were scheduled to meet in three stakes races, but one or the other was scratched, usually due to Seabiscuit's dislike of heavy ground. After extensive negotiation, a match race was organized for May 1938 at Belmont, but again Seabiscuit scratched. By June, however, Pollard had made a recovery and on June 23 agreed to work a young colt named Modern Youth. Spooked by something on the track, the horse broke rapidly through the stables and threw Pollard, shattering his leg, and seemingly ending his career.
A match race was held, but not against War Admiral. Instead, it was against Ligaroti, a highly regarded horse owned by the Hollywood entertainer Bing Crosby in an event organized to promote Crosby's resort and Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California. With Woolf aboard, Seabiscuit won that race, despite persistent fouling from Ligaroti's jockey. After three more outings, with only one win, he would finally go head to head with War Admiral in the Pimlico Special in Baltimore, Maryland.

Match of the century

On November 1, 1938, Seabiscuit met War Admiral in what was dubbed the "Match of the Century". The event itself, run over 1 and 3/16 miles (1.91 km), was one of the most anticipated sporting events in U.S. history. The Pimlico Race Course, from the grandstands to the infield, was jammed solid with fans. Trains were run from all over the country to bring fans to the race, and the estimated 40,000 at the track were joined by some 40 million listening on the radio. War Admiral was the prohibitive favorite (1-4 with most bookmakers) and a near unanimous selection of the writers and tipsters, excluding the California faithful.
Head-to-head races favor fast starters, and War Admiral's speed from the gate was the stuff of legend. Seabiscuit, on the other hand, was a pace stalker, skilled at holding with the pack before destroying the field with late acceleration. From the scheduled walk up start, few gave him a chance to head War Admiral into the first turn. Smith knew these things, and had been secretly training the Biscuit to run against type, using a starting bell and a whip to give the horse a Pavlovian burst of speed from the start.
When the bell rang, Seabiscuit ran away from the Triple Crown champion. Despite being drawn on outside, Woolf led by over a length after just 20 seconds. Halfway down the backstretch, War Admiral started to cut into the lead, gradually pulling level with Seabiscuit, and then slightly ahead. Following advice he had received from Pollard, Woolf had eased up on Seabiscuit, allowing his horse to see his rival, and then asked for more effort. Two hundred yards from the wire, Seabiscuit pulled away again and continued to extend his lead over the closing stretch, finally winning by four clear lengths.
As a result of his races that year and the victory over War Admiral, Seabiscuit was named "Horse of the Year" for 1938. The only prize that eluded him was the Hundred Grander.

Injury and return

While being ridden in a race, Seabiscuit faltered. The jockey, Woolf, said that he thought the horse only stumbled and continued the race. Afterwards, Howard and Smith ran to the horse with Smith yelling. The injury was not life threatening, although many predicted he would never race again. The diagnosis was a ruptured suspensory ligament in the front left leg. With Seabiscuit out of action, Smith and Howard concentrated on another of their horses, an Argentine stallion named Kayak II. Pollard and Seabiscuit recovered together at Charles Howard's ranch, with Pollard's new wife Agnes, who had nursed him through his initial recovery. Slowly, both horse and rider learned to walk again (Pollard joked that they "had four good legs between" them), although poverty had brought Pollard to the edge of alcoholism. A local doctor broke and reset Pollard's leg to aid his recovery, and slowly Red regained the confidence to sit on a horse. Wearing a brace to stiffen his atrophied leg, he began to ride Seabiscuit again, first at a walk and later at a trot and canter. Howard was delighted at their improvement, as he longed for Seabiscuit to race again, but was extremely worried about Pollard's involvement, as his leg was still fragile.
Over the fall and winter of 1939 Seabiscuit's fitness seemed to improve by the day. By the end of 1939, Smith was ready to confound veterinary opinion by returning the horse to race training, with a collection of stable jockeys in the saddle. By the time of his comeback race, however, Pollard had cajoled Howard into allowing him the ride. After again scratching from a race due to the soft going, the pair finally lined up at the start of the La Jolla Handicap at Santa Anita, on February 9, 1940. Compared to what had gone before, it was an unremarkable performance (Seabiscuit was third, bested by two lengths) but it was nevertheless an amazing comeback for both. By their third comeback race, Seabiscuit was back to his winning ways, running away from the field in the San Antonio Handicap to beat his erstwhile training partner, Kayak II, by two and a half lengths. Burdened by only 124 pounds, 56 kilos, Seabiscuit equalled the track record for a mile and 1/16.
There was only one race left. A week after the San Antonio, Seabiscuit and Kayak II both took the gate for the Santa Anita Handicap, and its $121,000 prize. 78,000 paying spectators crammed the racetrack, most backing the people's champion to complete his amazing return to racing. The start was inauspicious, as a tentative Pollard found his horse blocked almost from start. Picking his way through the field, Seabiscuit briefly led. As they thundered down the back straight, Seabiscuit became trapped in third place, behind leader Whichcee and Wedding Call on the outside. Trusting in his horse's acceleration, Pollard steered a dangerous line between the leaders and burst into the lead, taking the firm ground just off the rail. As Seabiscuit showed his old surge, Wedding Call and Whichcee faltered, and Pollard drove his horse on, taking the Hundred Grander by a length and a half from the fast-closing Kayak II.
Pandemonium engulfed the course. Neither horse nor rider, nor trainer nor owner could get through the sea of well-wishers to the winner's enclosure for some time.
On April 10, Seabiscuit's retirement from racing was officially announced. When he was retired to the Ridgewood Ranch near Willits, California, Seabiscuit was horse racing's all-time leading money winner. Put out to stud, Seabiscuit sired 109 foals, including three moderately successful racehorses, Sea Soverign , Sea Raven, and Sea Buddy. Over 50,000 visitors made the trek to Ridgewood Ranch to see Seabiscuit in the seven years he spent there before his death. His burial site is to this day a secret, known only to the immediate Howard family.
On June 23 2007, a statue of Seabiscuit was unveiled at Seabiscuit's home and final resting place, Ridgewood Ranch.

Seabiscuit in popular culture

In 1940, right after his spectacular Santa Anita win and at the moment of his retirement, track writer B. K. Beckwith wrote Seabiscuit: The Saga of a Great Champion, complete with a short foreword by Grantland Rice, that summed up the impact of this horse on America at the time.
In 1949, a fictionalized account was made into the motion picture The Story of Seabiscuit, starring Shirley Temple. Sea Sovereign played the title role. An otherwise undistinguished film, arguably its one virtue was the inclusion of the actual match race footage of War Admiral.
In 1963, author Ralph Moody wrote Come On Seabiscuit (ISBN 0-803-28287-7), illustrated by Robert Riger recently brought back into print by the University of Nebraska Press. It served as an inspiration for Laura Hillenbrand. On the radio show Fresh Air with Terry Gross on July 29, 2003, Hillenbrand said of Moody's book:
When I was about seven years old. . . . I found a children's book called Come on Seabiscuit! which was just wonderful! I read it so many times I broke the spine and all the pages fell out. I still have it; it has to be wrapped in rubber bands because the pages will go everywhere. But that book in just vivid prose told the story of the horse.
In 2001, Laura Hillenbrand wrote Seabiscuit: An American Legend (ISBN 0-449-00561-5). The book became a bestseller, and on July 25, 2003, Universal Studios released a motion picture titled Seabiscuit, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The 2003 film has been tweaked by some critics on the grounds that the match race restaging, the centerpiece of the film, lacked the drama one would have expected from it.
There is a statuette of Seabiscuit at the Keeneland library donated by businessman and racehorse owner, W. Arnold Hanger.
At Santa Anita Park, a life-sized bronze statue of "the Biscuit" is on display. In 1958, he was voted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. In the Blood-Horse magazine ranking of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, Seabiscuit was ranked twenty-fifth, War Admiral was thirteenth with Seabiscuit's grandsire and War Admiral's sire Man o' War, voted as first.

Pop culture references
A 1939 Warner Bros. cartoon featured Porky Pig and a horse named "Tea Biscuit", which was the name of his sire's dam.
The 1939 Walt Disney cartoon "Beach Picnic" had Donald Duck attempting to ride an inflatable water tube horse named Seabiscuit.
In the 1943 Abbott and Costello film It Ain't Hay, the champion horse is named "Tea Biscuit."
There is also a 1940 Warner Bros. Cartoon called "Confederate Honey" with the line, "It is the year 1861 B.C. -- Before C-Biscuit."
The widely-circulated Spike Jones parody of the William Tell Overture included a horse name "Dog biscuit".
In the Family Guy episode "The Courtship of Stewie's Father", Cleveland mistakes actress Penelope Cruz for Seabiscuit on the red carpet while he is working for E!. After getting her attention by calling "Seabiscuit! Seabiscuit! Would you mind talking to E!?", Cleveland offers Cruz a carrot, which she accepts and eats in the manner of a horse (without using her hands) as Cleveland strokes her horse-like nose.
In the show Kappa Mikey , a horse named Seacookie appears in some episodes.
In the NBC television show Friday Night Lights, sophomore starting quarterback Matt Saracen was described by his friend Landry as "the coach's Little Engine that Could, you're his Seabiscuit".
San Francisco Giants rookie pitcher Tim Lincecum has been referred to as Seabiscuit due to his short stature (5'11") and 98-mph fastball.
In the movie Chinatown, a character reads a newspaper which bears the headline "Seabiscuit Idol of Racing Fans."[2]
In Meet the Fockers, Greg Focker's mother is giving his future father-in-law, played by Robert De Niro, a massage. When Greg interrupts, his mother is bouncing on Jack's back. Later, Greg comments, "You were riding him like Seabiscuit!"
In the 2007 movie Juno, the lead character comments that "...being pregnant makes me pee like Seabiscuit."
In the 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV, Seabiscuit is mentioned on one of the local radio stations. Lazlow, the DJ talks to a lady on the street and says "Imagine you're a stud about to impregnate a prized horse, I'm like the Seabiscuit of the radio."
Philadelphia Eagles running back Brian Westbrook was nicknamed Seabiscuit by his teammates because of his short stature (5'8"), speed, explosiveness and determination.[3]
In many of The Three Stooges episodes,Curly mentions Seabiscuit.

Pedigree

Pedigree for Seabiscuit1933 Bay colt
Pedigree of Seabiscuit
SireHard Tackb. 1926
Man o' Warch. 1917
Fair Playch. 1905
Hastings
Fairy Gold
Mahubahb. 1910
Rock Sand
Merry Token
Tea Biscuit1912
Rock Sandbr. 1900
Sainfoin
Roquebrune
Teas Overch. 1893
Hanover
Tea Rose
DamSwing Onb. 1926
Whisk Broom IIch. 1907
Broomstickb. 1901
Ben Brush
Elf
Audience1901
Sir Dixon
Sallie McClelland
Balanceb. 1919
Rabelaisbr. 1900
St. Simon
Satirical
Balancoireb. 1911
Meddler
Ballantrae

Notes