Seabiscuit vs. War Admiral - 1938 Match Race

Mrussell,

my instant reaction was to re-post your clip to the archive (where it belongs). However, I think this is such a great story, that it derserves to be allowed to stand.

And in that spirit of racing, bearing in mind that there are new people who routinely hit this site for the first time who will have no idea how important this race was, (and especially under the current economic circumstances) is someone prepared to, or can find, a link please? to appraise what it meant?
 
I recommend the film Seabiscuit.

While the race sequences are obviously contrived, the rest of the film is, in my opinion, a very smart piece of work, very deftly crafted and handled. Visually, it's a very nice offering.
 
Terrific - and a lot of the other racing links were great, too - nice little tribute to the Biscuit and the amazing PHAR LAP, too, among others, the most outstanding but tragic being the match race involving the stunningly brilliant filly RUFFIAN. I won't give the game away as some of you'll want to watch that, too, but do follow up on Wikipedia for an account of what happened afterwards. What is interesting is the notion that her pedigree might've contributed to her fate.
 
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Wasn't it a shame that the Montjeu vs Dubai Millennium match race never happened? That would have been fun.
 
Great race, fun watching it again. My Father would love this, he saw Sea Biscuit and War Admiral and was a massive fan of both of them. Shame that some of the elder racegoers such as my father are no longer with us in this age when it is so easy to relive those moments online.

Agree some of the other links are good too. There is also a nice tribute on there for Go For Wand my favourite US filly although I liked Ruffian a lot too.
 
The recording of the race bears out to the letter the story in the book about the 'game plan' to beat War Admiral. Seabiscuit was to go off fast but Wolff was to let War Admiral take over early in the back stretch. The figured once it got to an 'eyeball' scenario, Seabiscuit would come out on top.

Some going, though, to beat WA four lengths. That's a 9lbs beating of what was regarded as the world champ. Makes you wonder to what extent racing is about sheer ability or tactics or horses' 'personalities'.
 
I've just watched this race as part of a documentary on PBS America. I had to check they hadn't sped up the film, it is awesome.

Apparently the crowd was so dense the commentator couldn't get to his usual perch and he had a restricted view of the race.
 
I watched the movie for the 3rd time last week. I remember reading the first weekend it was released they thought it was going to flop but by the following week word got around about Toby McGuires performance and it ended up doing exceptionally well.


The documentary is well worth a watch as well.

As far as Seabiscuit goes he was obviously some horse but how good is hard to say. It is a bit of a fairy story and the yanks love a good fairy story. His actual race record is surprisingly poor over all but he never really started hitting top form until he was 4 winning 15 from 11 but he was beaten 4 times as a 4yo 5 times as a 5yo only ran once at 6 and lost 2 from 4 in his last season.

He won the day against War Admiral but he wasn't the giant they would have you believe he was 15.3 hands and SB was 15.2 hands

The movie leads you to believe that War Admiral's owners were running scared but when the match looked on and War Admiral was in tip top shape they scratched Sea Biscuit not the other way round.

When they did take him on they made sure it was at the very track that War Admiral had struggled to handle on his previous visit and he was also said not to be 100% when they met.

War Admiral was possibly the superior animal but all that mattered was David had slain Goliath and the yanks did what they do best...hyped it to high heavens and had the nation in a frenzy. Books films documentaries and memorobilia........it's said there are more original Seabuscuit shoes floating around the USA than there are baseball cards

Fantastic story in the top 5 racehorse movies for sure.....but as far as champions go he wouldn't get a mention in the top 10 in the USA polls for the best of all time.
 
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I have watched the film several times, always gets me at the end (sob)

Its the timing of the story that makes its great - if it had been any other time it probably wouldnt have had the same impact but being during the Depression gave it an extra dimension, something for the poor downtrodden folk to take their minds off their lives.

As for not being mentioned in the top 10 Tanlic, perhaps not but he did get in at #25 beating a few big names, Alydar Sunday Silence etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood-...e_Top_100_U.S._Racehorses_of_the_20th_Century
 
I cry at lassie mate so you can imagine what I was like when watching Seabiscuit.:(

After what he achieved you have to admire his trainer's perseverance.

Most would have sent him straight to the sales at the end of his first season.

Horses can always improve but I can't think of many if any who improved anything like he did.

He's gone from being the equivalent of a class 5 horse to a Group 1 horse which is virtually unheard of.
 
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davidjohnson said:
This is not uncommon. It happens to Mike Cattermole at most Cheltenham meetings.
Click to expand...

:lol:



By the way the documentary said Seabiscuit had already run 35 times as a juvenile before his trainer Tom Smith bought him, "winning just a handful of them".

Nevertheless he sold for "a bargain basement $8,000". It was a very cheap price in relation to what he went on to win, but surely it could not have been a remainder bin price in the 1930s?

Regarding his quality, he was in some ways the Monksfield of his era. He was small, had an unorthodox stride and unfashionable connections, but he had great heart and people were drawn to him, especially given the times that were in it, as Ballydoyle remarks. But he was bloody good as well and broke several track records.

And Monksfield wasn't too bad either!
 
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