As the race approaches, Pollard severely fractures his leg in a riding accident. With Seabiscuit at a disadvantage, Smith trains the horse to break fast at the sound of the bell. Riddle agrees, on the condition that they race with a rope and bell instead of a starting gate. Howard declares that Pollard will remain Seabiscuit's jockey, and rallies public support for a match race with War Admiral. Losing by a nose, Pollard admits his partial blindness to Smith. In the prestigious Santa Anita Handicap, Seabiscuit takes the lead, but Pollard's impaired vision prevents him from noticing another horse surging up on the outside. Riddle, owner of the East Coast champion and Triple Crown-winning racehorse War Admiral, but Riddle dismisses California racing as inferior. Under Smith's innovative training, Seabiscuit becomes the most successful racehorse on the West Coast and an underdog hero to the public. Smith witnesses Pollard's similarly temperamental spirit, and hires him as Seabiscuit's jockey. Fitzsimmons, Seabiscuit is viewed as small, lazy, and unmanageable. Though a grandson of the great Man o' War and trained by the renowned James E. Smith convinces him to buy a colt called Seabiscuit. When he acquires a stable of racehorses, he hires itinerant horseman Tom Smith as his trainer. He obtains a divorce in Mexico, where Pollard is struggling to make his mark as a jockey. Years pass and Pollard becomes a jockey, but amateur boxing leaves him blind in one eye.Īfter their young son is killed in an automobile accident, Howard's wife leaves him.

In the wake of the Great Depression, Canadian John 'Red' Pollard's family is financially ruined, and he is sent to live with a horse trainer. He is soon selling automobiles, becoming the largest car dealer in California and one of the Bay Area's richest men. Howard opens a bicycle shop in San Francisco. In the early 20th century, as America enters the automobile age, Charles S. At the 76th Academy Awards, Seabiscuit received seven nominations, including Best Picture, but ultimately lost all seven, including six to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The film is loosely based on the life and racing career of Seabiscuit, an undersized and overlooked Thoroughbred race horse, whose unexpected successes made him a hugely popular media sensation in the United States during the Great Depression. Seabiscuit is a 2003 American sports film co-produced, written and directed by Gary Ross and based on the best-selling 1999 non-fiction book Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand.

Seabiscuit book cover