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Seabiscuit was a racehorse who rose to fame in the 1930s, even though he started out as an underdog. His trainer, James “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons, found Seabiscuit to have speed but didn’t have time to develop him into a winning racehorse because he ran in claiming races. Finally, Charles Howard and his trainer Tom Smith bought Seabiscuit and trained him for racing glory.

Howard and Smith were both successful in their respective industries. Howard made his fortune in the automobile business, and Smith learned his trade on a horse ranch. When Seabiscuit came to them, he was tired from all the racing that had been done with him at Wheatley’s barn. Therefore, they began by strengthening him physically and soothing his nerves. Riders let Seabiscuit run freely since he resisted taking directions from anyone else but Howard or Smith. Around this time, Red Pollard came looking for work and got hired because of how well he rode Seabiscuit after getting to know what kind of horse he was—a highly spirited one who didn’t like being whipped into doing something against his will; therefore, Pollard concluded that it would be best if he could just ride him gently without whipping him so as not to hurt him anymore than necessary. From there on out, they worked together to reignite Seabiscuit’s old racing instincts.

Toward the end of 1936, Seabiscuit was starting to show signs of achieving success. The team worked hard and it paid off when he won the Governor’s Handicap in Detroit. From there they moved back to California where Howard had his home base. They prepared for a new race that offered a $100,000 purse by winning other races and narrowly losing the Santa Anita Handicap. This was their “coming out party” because until then no one knew about them; now everyone did after this loss. After more preparation on the West Coast, they headed east to take on some of the best horses in America.

Seabiscuit was the dominant horse in the East. He had a minor injury when War Admiral came back from a Triple Crown win, but he recovered and won again. The owner of War Admiral was hard to pin down for a race against Seabiscuit, so they didn’t meet before Seabiscuit returned home at the end of summer.

In 1938, Pollard had a bad accident with one of Howard’s other horses and was in the hospital. He suggested that his friend George Woolf take over for him on Seabiscuit, which he did. Although they came close to winning, they lost by a nose.

Howard continued to pursue a match race with War Admiral, but it was postponed. Pollard had healed enough to start training again and planned to ride Seabiscuit in the race. However, they scratched the race at the last minute when Seabiscuit’s knees were sore. After rest, he recovered just in time for another injury that sidelined him for several months. Woolf returned as his jockey after recovering from an accident of his own earlier in the year. They raced together once more before Seabiscuit suffered minor injuries that made him miss several races during summertime. He returned to form toward the end of summer on the West Coast and then went back East where he won against War Admiral despite everyone else thinking he’d lose.

Seabiscuit had a serious injury in his leg, and most people thought that it would end his career. However, Howard took him to his ranch where he could rest and heal. Pollard was also there after having spent five months in the hospital recovering from an accident. Both Seabiscuit and Pollard slowly recovered, but they were planning on running again despite doctors’ warnings about another accident. In the end, Howard relented to Pollard’s pleas because he believed that Seabiscuit’s old form was back when they won their last race together at Santa Anita Park with 78,000 spectators watching them run for the first time since 1938.