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    With Seabiscuit and War Admiral At The Race Of The Century
    With Seabiscuit and War Admiral At The Race Of The Century
    With Seabiscuit and War Admiral At The Race Of The Century
    Ebook242 pages1 hour

    With Seabiscuit and War Admiral At The Race Of The Century

    By Peter Tamas

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    Seabiscuit and War Admiral were the son and grandson of the greatest racehorse. They raced against each other once. That was the race of the century.
    George Woolf arrived at the last possible moment. He strutted into the paddock and swung easily into Seabiscuit’s saddle. George smiled and said hello to everyone cheerfully, as if he were the only one completely unconcerned about the race.
    War Admiral walked onto the track first, head up. Seabiscuit followed, head down. Like George, Seabiscuit looked unconcerned. George could feel Seabiscuit’s tight muscles. They reminded George of a coiled spring. Seabiscuit brought his head up once and looked about the crowd.
    Farrell Jones stood near some people who worked for War Admiral's owner. They were sure War Admiral would win and joked about Seabiscuit. As the start of the race got closer, they did not say much. They all knew this would be a great race. The crowd was packed too tight for the announcer. In the end, he found a spot near the end of the stretch, where the horses would go into the first turn. He climbed up on the outer rail and looked to his left at the start. He started his broadcast. “Ladies and Gentlemen I found it impossible to get through this enormous throng at Pimlico today... the first time I failed to do that from the paddock.”
    The flagman held up his arms. In the Howards’ box, Marcella squeezed her eyes shut just before the start. The two horses reached the line together and stood still. All was quiet. The starter’s bell broke the silence. War Admiral raised his front legs. George Woolf felt Seabiscuit’s muscles tighten and push downward. To help with what little momentum he could, George threw himself forward, his legs straight back. George smacked Seabiscuit once to let him know it was for real. George could feel hard muscles everywhere he touched the horse.
    Marcella heard the starting bell. She opened her eyes. The two horses stretched their legs as hard as they could, side-by-side, building speed. People all about Farrell Jones were shouting. The fans were as full of energy as the horses. Marcella could see excited people in the infield ran towards the backstretch to get a better view.
    War Admiral also drove forward as fast as he could go. The two horses ran next to each other for thirty yards. George kept Seabiscuit close, so Seabiscuit could look War Admiral in the eye.
    Marcella could see that one of the horses was pulling ahead a little at a time, first by a nose, and then inching forward. Someone near Marcella gasped. Red leaned towards the radio, concentrating on the announcer’s voice. “Seabiscuit is outrunning him!”
    Marcella could see the people in the infield pushing over the fence that was supposed to hold them back from the track.
    After only a sixteenth of a mile, Seabiscuit was half a length ahead. George Woolf could feel Seabiscuit working hard. Seabiscuit flicked his ears forward. The crowd reached the infield rail. Some arms waved. Others stretched towards the horses. George could see that Seabiscuit’s eyes looked forward, not at his fans.
    Farrell Jones knew that War Admiral never had to race as hard as he could. But now Farrell could see War Admiral race like the champion he was. He went to the outside and gained on Seabiscuit.
    Red heard on the radio: “They’re halfway down that backstretch and there goes War Admiral after him.”
    Around Farrell people shouted “Here he comes! Here he comes!” War Admiral pulled even with Seabiscuit. Farrell could feel the grandstand shaking.
    George Woolf loosened the reins slightly. This told Seabiscuit he could start to speed up again. Seabiscuit refused to let War Admiral pass him.
    Everyone thought this would be the race of the century. And now halfway through, the son and grandson of the greatest race horse of the twentieth century were running right next to each other. The horses were so close to each other that the jockey’s knees almost touched.
    The

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPeter Tamas
    Release dateDec 27, 2016
    ISBN9781370152049
    With Seabiscuit and War Admiral At The Race Of The Century

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      Book preview

      With Seabiscuit and War Admiral At The Race Of The Century - Peter Tamas

      No one should be judged by his relatives’ failures.

      Not even a horse.

      Seabiscuit was.

      1. Seabiscuit's Family

      No one should be judged by his relatives’ failures. Not even a horse.

      Seabiscuit was.

      Seabiscuit was the son of a horse named Hard Tack. Hard Tack was trained by Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons. A trainer is responsible for preparing horses for racing and deciding which races they should run in. Fitzsimmons was the best racehorse trainer in the country.

      Hard Tack was the son of the great racehorse Man o’ War. So, everyone thought Hard Tack had great potential. But, Hard Tack’s bad personality wasted that potential.

      Sometimes people remember their disappointments very clearly. Fitzsimmons remembered Hard Tack very well.

      Man o’ War’s children caused nightmares. One, called War Relic, tried to kill people. He once fooled everyone by running a good race. Then, near the end of his next race, War Relic stopped suddenly. The jockey flew off towards some sharp equipment on the infield. As he flew, the jockey caught the rail and vaulted like a gymnast. He barely landed safely. (Jockeys are very small, but they are great athletes).

      War Relic’s brother Hard Tack also hated racing. At one point, Hard Tack decided to play along. Hard Tack won three races. He even broke speed records. Then Hard Tack had enough. He didn’t try to kill anyone, not that day. Instead, at the start of a race, Hard Tack refused to move.

      Fitzsimmons decided not to waste any more time on such an obstinate horse. He shipped Hard Tack back to his owner, Gladys Phipps.

      Fitzsimmons had even less patience for Seabiscuit’s mother, Swing On. Swing On sometimes ran quickly. But mostly she did not train well. Fitzsimmons got rid of her too. He did not even bother to race her once.

      Gladys Phipps’ family loved Thoroughbred horse racing. Over the years, they owned many great racehorses.

      Gladys Phipps thought Hard Tack was beautiful. He was copper colored and graceful. And Hard Tack was fast. Gladys Phipps never gave up on Hard Tack. She was no fool. She knew Hard Tack’s faults. But she thought if she bred him, one of his children might become a superlative racer. As it turned out, she was completely right about that.

      But, no one was willing to pay the expense of having one of their mares (female horses) bred with Hard Tack. In the end, Gladys Phipps bred four mares that she owned to Hard Tack. One of them was Swing On.

      Owners like to name their Thoroughbreds after one or both of the parents. But they also have to pick unique names. Hard Tack’s mother was called Tea Biscuit. A tea biscuit is a type of cracker.

      Before modern methods of preserving food were invented, the army fed its soldiers huge crackers. The soldiers called these crackers hard tack. Sailors got the same crackers, but they called them sea biscuits. The Phipps family found a way to name Swing On’s colt after Hard Tack. They named him Seabiscuit.

      Seabiscuit was unappreciated from the beginning.

      Seabiscuit was born in May, 1933. That was a few months later than race horses are usually born. Seabiscuit was also born small. He would always be smaller than his sire (father). But because he was born a bit late, he looked very small.

      Seabiscuit’s handlers thought he would never race. The foaling groom thought Seabiscuit was too short in the legs and too big in the head. Worse, he had the same ugly, knobby knees as his mother. Then, the next spring, Seabiscuit was the last yearling to shed his winter coat. Seabiscuit was not only two or three inches shorter than the others, he was shaggy too. They thought Seabiscuit was ugly. They said he looked more like a ragged range pony than a Thoroughbred. That April, when Gladys Phipps came to see her foals for the first time, they left Seabiscuit in a back barn. They later said they did this because he was sick.

      Owners of Thoroughbreds know that when a horse wins, it is because the trainer and jockey did an excellent job. This is true even when the horse is a gifted racer. Horses, like people, are born with ability and intelligence. But it is not enough for horses (or people) to be born with a gift. The gift must be developed. So, Thoroughbred owners hire the best trainers they can afford. The Phipps family was one of America’s richest families. And the best trainer at the time was Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons.

      The most prestigious prize in Thoroughbred racing is called The Triple Crown. When Seabiscuit was born, only three horses had won The Triple Crown. Two of these three horses were trained by Fitzsimmons. And it looked like it was a matter of time before another of Fitzsimmons’ horses would win The Triple Crown. And so, many owners wanted Fitzsimmons to train their Thoroughbreds. Fitzsimmons became the top trainer in the country.

      Fitzsimmons noticed a few things about Seabiscuit. Seabiscuit was easygoing. Relaxed. Slow. And, Fitzsimmons noticed that Seabiscuit slept a lot more than the other horses. Seabiscuit liked to sleep so much, he even slept lying down. Most horses will not sleep lying down. In the wild, it would take too long to get up if danger surprised a horse herd. Seabiscuit was too relaxed to care. He slept lying down every chance he had.

      Fitzsimmons noticed a few other things. Seabiscuit had trouble keeping up with the other horses. Or did he? Fitzsimmons was suspicious. Why didn’t Seabiscuit sweat during a workout?

      One day, Seabiscuit looked right at Fitzsimmons. Fitzsimmons noticed a gleam in Seabiscuit’s eye and an expression of defiance. It was as if Seabiscuit was thinking that no trainer pushed him around. Suddenly it all made sense. Fitzsimmons thought Seabiscuit was as defiant as his father, only much smarter. And Fitzsimmons thought Seabiscuit was as lazy as his mother.

      Fitzsimmons grabbed a whip and turned to the jockey. Just see how many times you can hit him with this going a quarter mile.

      Seabiscuit and Red Pollard

      2. The Lazy Yearling

      Seabiscuit’s workout that day was against the best yearling (one year old horse) in the stable. This yearling was called Faust. Fitzsimmons called his son over so they could watch the workout together. The jockey whipped Seabiscuit as fast as he could and as hard as he could. James Jr. asked his father: What about your rule about not whipping horses?

      That yearling reminds me of a bird that can sing, but won’t unless we make him, explained Sunny Jim. Lets see if he can keep up with Faust.

      Faust never stood a chance. He finished far behind Seabiscuit.

      Fitzsimmons stared at his stopwatch. Seabiscuit ran the quarter mile in 22¼ seconds. It was the fastest he had ever seen a yearling run that distance. Fitzsimmons paused and then looked at his son. That bird can sing, said Fitzsimmons. But he’s lazy. Dead lazy.

      Fitzsimmons had a colt with great potential that was the same age as Seabiscuit. He was Granville, son of Gallant Fox. Gallant Fox had won the Triple Crown. Granville was also good enough to win the Triple Crown. And Granville, like Gallant Fox, was beautiful and well mannered.

      Granville was everything that Seabiscuit was not. And Seabiscuit was too lazy to get in shape.

      Seabiscuit’s racing career started in January 1935. He raced against two-year-olds. Seabiscuit’s second birthday was at the end of May. At first, he did not have a chance against horses that were several months older.

      Seabiscuit finished fourth in his first race. All things considered, that was not bad. But, Gladys Phipps owned many horses that were top prospects. She decided to sell Seabiscuit. There was just one problem. No one wanted to buy Seabiscuit.

      In the end, Gladys Phipps was right. She did not give up on Hard Tack too soon. In the end, Hard Tack sired a great racehorse. But unfortunately for Gladys Phipps, she gave up on Seabiscuit too soon. She decided to sell Seabiscuit for whatever he was worth. But there were no buyers. So Fitzsimmons decided not to waste too much time on Seabiscuit. He decided to forget about workouts and just race Seabiscuit as often as possible. Bills had to be paid. Maybe Seabiscuit would be able to pay some of them with a win here or there. And Seabiscuit’s new trainer would be Fitzsimmons’ son, James Jr.

      Seabiscuit lost his first sixteen races. By then, the jockey decided Seabiscuit would not, could not win. And so did everyone else. So the jockey let Seabiscuit run his own race. To everyone’s surprise, Seabiscuit won his seventeenth race. In his eighteenth race, Seabiscuit broke the track record.

      When someone has the wrong reputation, even good news looks like bad news. Instead of seeing that Seabiscuit had great potential, everyone thought that this was another sign that Seabiscuit was just a disappointment.

      Then Seabiscuit began to lose again. Like human athletes, Thoroughbred racehorses need time between races to recover. But Seabiscuit did not get enough recovery time. So, he did not sleep well. He spent the nights pacing around and around in his stall. At the start of his races, he fought anyone who came near him at the starting gates. Usually he sulked during the race. Seabiscuit was often in last place from start to finish.

      Seabiscuit was burned out.

      That October the great jockey George Woolf rode Seabiscuit in a race at Boston’s Suffolk Downs. George later said that Seabiscuit was generally mean, restive and ragged.

      They say that horses don’t reason, they learn. There’s a saying that if a horse goes under a tree and a monkey jumps on his back, the

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