To Fly Without Wings: Dispelling the Mythology of the Seabiscuit-War Admiral Match Race1
Ashley L. Brooks
Chowan University
Humanities
Faculty Mentor
Gregory S. Taylor
Chowan University
Mythology has been used to satisfy societal needs throughout the centuries, but because
of scientific discoveries and the development of new technology, a current perception is that
humanity has evolved beyond the need for myth. In reality, mythology continues to affect the
modern world. People have to have a Pegasus in their midst, a hero, and if a horse with wings
does not exist they invent wings by tweaking the truth until the reality is almost unrecognizable.
Such was the case with the 1938 horse race known as the “Match of the Century” Dismissing
the facts, the public and the press mythologized the truth of the Seabiscuit-War Admiral match
race, to gratify the needs of society.2 To a nation suffering through the Depression, the myth of
the underdog Seabiscuit defeating the mighty War Admiral was a needed salve. The real story is
quite different, yet equally compelling.
1
Based on title of film Thou Shalt Fly Without Wings: A Celebration of the Horse, 1978 Kentucky Horse Park
documentary film. The film title is based on a saying that is thought to come from the Koran, “Horse, thou art truly
a creature without equal, for thou fliest without wings and conquerest without sword.”
2
A “match race” is a specially organized race between two horses to see which is the best. The terms and
conditions are set up by the owners of the horses, their agents, or by the owner of track on which the race is to be
run. A special purse is set aside for the race as well.
1
War Admiral was one of the greatest race horses in American history. Of twenty-six
career starts, he won twenty-one. In 1936, he won the very first Pimlico Special. In 1937 he
won the Triple Crown, one of only eleven horses to do so, and was named “Horse of the Year”
by racing experts and officials.3 In 1945 he was honored as the Leading Sire and in 1958 he was
inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame.4 Breeders, owners, and trainers only dream of owning a
horse with such credentials. In the eyes of most Americans, however, War Admiral is not wellknown for these achievements. The one thing for which he is the most famous is his loss to
Seabiscuit.
Seabiscuit is regarded as the image of the American Dream. He stands as a symbol of the
“little horse that could” who rose from the dregs of claiming races to the top of horse racing
society, beating one of the greatest race horses of the decade.5 Seabiscuit started eighty-nine
times, winning thirty-three and finishing without a place or show twenty-eight times. His two
major claims to fame were his phenomenal earnings, over $437,000, and his win over War
Admiral. These primary factors earned him an induction into the Racing Hall of Fame along
with War Admiral in 1958. 6
The match race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral was scheduled at Pimlico Race
Track in Maryland, for November 1, 1938. The terms of the race were not very demanding.
Both horses were to run under 120 lbs., not an exorbitant amount for horses who had carried over
3
Shannon Leva, Curatorial Assistant, “Kentucky Horse Park Records,” International Museum of the Horse;
<http://www.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademic/frame.do?tokenKey=rsh20.355097.352762014...>
4
Edwin Anthony, “War Admiral: Master Navigator of the Thoroughbred Gene Pool,” The Blood Horse, October 14,
2000, (courtesy Kentucky Horse Park and The International Museum of the Horse).
5
A claiming race is considered the lowest-level race in which a horse can run. In this particular type of race, the
horses are given a set price prior to the start of the race. Anyone who decides to may “claim” or buy that horse
before the race at the set price. The claim and payment must be made before the start of the race and the person who
claimed the horse must take it regardless of any injuries incurred during the race. If a horse is claimed, it is usually
because the buyer believes the horse has potential.
6
Seabiscuit, Racing Hall of Fame website, (http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=132).
2
130 lbs. in previous races.7 This was a fair proposition given that most horses ran under weightfor-age rules, meaning that the older horse, in this case Seabiscuit, would have had to carry more
weight. The length was to be a mile and three sixteenths, a standard distance for both horses.
The only unusual aspect of the conditions of the race was that a starting wire was to be used, in
part because of War Admiral’s hatred of starting gates. 8
Little preparation was needed for the match race based on these conditions, but both
teams had to analyze their opponent. There was little War Admiral’s owner or his trainer needed
to do except keep up Admiral’s conditioning and training. Seabiscuit’s owner and trainer,
however, had to make a few strategic changes. The hardest thing Seabiscuit had to do was to
learn how to start strong. War Admiral typically broke straight to the front of the field. 9 If
Admiral was too far ahead from the beginning, Seabiscuit would be hard-pressed to catch up.
This meant that Biscuit needed to be re-schooled to start quickly. Portrayed in the 2003 movie as
a new and extraordinary concept, this is not an issue that would have surprised anyone. Just as
any professional athlete watches the performances of their competitors to find out their strengths
and weaknesses, the Seabiscuit team knew how War Admiral raced. Not strategizing would
have been foolhardy.
Thousands of people across the United States knew these facts and understood that the
horses were equally matched, and that the outcome was not a given. One writer for the Blood
7
The number of pounds under which a horse runs is usually assigned based on the horse’s age and sex with the
older male horses receiving more weight than females. In same-sex or same-age races, the assigned weight is given
based on past performances with the better horses assigned heavier weights. In some cases, the individual track has a
secretary who assigns the weight based on his or her personal assessment of the each horse. The desired amount is
achieved by adding bars of iron to the racing saddle after factoring the jockey’s weight into the equation.
Encyclopedia Britanica, “Handicap Racing,” http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-3317/horse-racing. Joe Drape,
NY Times, “HORSE RACING; With the Whitney Set, Weight Falls on One Man,”
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980DE7DD133DF93BA15754C0A9679C8B63
8
Edward L. Bowen, “War Admiral,” Thoroughbred Legends, No. 17, Eclipse Press, (Lexington, KY: 2002), 118119.
9
Ibid,124.
3
Horse magazine wrote, “Nobody in Maryland, it seems, is willing to lay odds that Seabiscuit will
whip War Admiral or that War Admiral will whip Seabiscuit.”10 The result was a heightened
anticipation for the race. Because the racetrack at Pimlico could only hold 16,000 people, the
track owner decided to hold the match on Tuesday in order to limit the number of people who
could attend. This was a virtual failure. An estimated 40,000 people came to see Seabiscuit race
the great champion War Admiral, the largest crowd Pimlico had ever had.11 Those who were
unable to attend in person, sat breathlessly in front of their radios.
The race lived up to expectations. Seabiscuit broke with War Admiral at the start, pulling
to an early lead. Along the back-stretch, Biscuit relinquished his lead to race neck and neck with
Admiral. When watching film footage of the match, it appears as if only one horse is on the
track because both Seabiscuit and War Admiral are running in step with each other. After the
turn to the home-stretch, Seabiscuit pulled away, winning by three lengths. Charlie Kurtsinger,
War Admiral’s jockey, said after the race, “I have no excuse…We gave it all we had. It just
wasn’t good enough.”12
As soon as the race was over, the myth-making began. The press began by depicting War
Admiral as the epitome of racing conformation and Seabiscuit as ugly and crooked-legged. A
journalist for the New York Times wrote on the day after the race, “Smashing the track record,
beating War Admiral at his own game the phlegmatic ugly duckling with the lame leg… did all
and more than the son of Man O’ War.”13 The press crafted Seabiscuit into a fairy-tale “ugly
duckling” who was not supposed to win. In reality, Seabiscuit’s beautifully formed head and
10
Russell F. Oakes, “War Admiral and Seabiscuit,” October 29, 1938, The Story of Seabiscuit: From the Pages of
the Nation’s Most Prominent Racing Magazine, John McEvoy, ed., Eclipse Press (Lexington, KY:2003), 57.
11
Edward L. Bowen, “War Admiral,” Thoroughbred Legends, No. 17, Eclipse Press, (Lexington, KY: 2002), 119.
12
Ibid, 125.
13
Bryan Fields, “40,000 Watch Seabiscuit Defeat War Admiral at Pimlico,” New York Times, special (November 2,
1938), ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1837-Current File), accessed 9-30-2007.
4
neck, coupled with his large heart-girth and his deep chest gave him great balance and reach. It
is true that the Biscuit did not have straight legs, being slightly over in the knees. Early in 1938
he was lame enough to cancel the first scheduled match race. After eighty-three starts, however,
Biscuit had had little trouble of which to speak. War Admiral had his faults as well. Possessing
a high-set “swan neck,” his stride was inhibited somewhat in his ability to stretch.14 The
Admiral too suffered an injury the year before. At the Belmont Stakes, the last of the Triple
Crown races, he stepped on his front hoof with one of his back hooves, and sliced off a full
square-inch of heel. With blood spraying throughout the entire race, War Admiral managed to
win the Stakes and Triple Crown by three lengths.15
The press added to this faulty mythology by emphasizing the fact that Man O’ War was
War Admiral’s father. Carrying a record of twenty wins in twenty-one starts, racing experts
voted Man O’ War “horse of the century.”16 With a sire such as Man O’ War, War Admiral’s
breeding was indeed superb. What few in the press emphasized, however, was that Seabiscuit
was Man O’ War’s grandson. Seabiscuit’s sire, Hard Tack, was a son of Man O’ War and his
dam, Swing On, was by Whisk Broom II, a well-respected racer. This, coupled with his sire’s
incredible credentials, demonstrated Seabiscuit’s worthy pedigree. As one modern-day source
wrote, “Seabiscuit is no son of a delivery-wagon plug who battled his way to the top.”17
Not only did the contemporary press play a role in the myth-making, but modern sources
expound on this “immortalized myth,” exaggerating the comparative height and weight of the
two horses. In the popular 2003 movie Seabiscuit, Hollywood simply lied to emphasize
14
Joe H. Palmer, “The Pimlico Special,” October 29, 1938, The Story of Seabiscuit, 57.
Ibid, 69-71.
16
“Man O’ War Voted Horse of the Century in American Poll,” Racing Post, (February 26, 1999), 6, LexisNexis
Academic: Document, September 30, 2007,
<http://www.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademic/frame.do?tokenKey=rsh20.355097.352762014...>.
17
“Seabiscuit: Horatio Alger of the Turf,” Saturday Evening Post, (Nov/December 2003).
15
5
Seabiscuit’s win as being against all odds. The movie states that War Admiral was a monstrous
18.0 hands high (six feet tall), a giant of a horse even by today’s standards.18 This would make
Seabiscuit’s win almost unbelievable since the movie claimed he was very small (about 15.0
hands high or four feet ten inches tall), a height difference of one foot, two inches.19 The
difference in the length of stride, by default would have given War Admiral a great advantage.
The reality is that Seabiscuit was 15.2 hands and War Admiral was only a half inch taller. 20
The press continued the mythology by depicting the two owners at opposite ends of the
economic scale. Samuel Riddle, War Admiral’s owner, was portrayed as a fat-cat monopolizing
easterner, the Rockefeller of the racing world.21 Charles Howard, Seabiscuit’s owner, was
portrayed as a heroic figure who, like his horse, overcame social hardships. People were ready
to praise Howard for his persistence and condemn Riddle for his millions. While Riddle was
indeed a millionaire and a well-known figure in the equestrian world as a foxhunter, trainer, and
the owner of a flat racing stable, what the populous failed to recognize was that Howard, too,
was a millionaire.22 He owned a 163 foot yacht, a 16,000 acre cattle ranch, as well as a racing
stable.23 Howard once stated that he “wouldn’t give $50 for the fastest horse alive,” yet later in
his career paid $8,000 for a claimer: Seabiscuit.24
Not only were the two owners mythologized, they also played a part in creating the myth
– Howard in particular. After beating War Admiral, Howard promoted Seabiscuit by making a
18
Seabiscuit, dir., Gary Ross, Spyglass Entertainment Holdings, LLC. and Universal Pictures Distribution, Los
Angeles, CA: Spyglass Entertainment, 2003.
19
Goofs For Seabiscuit (2003), http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0329575/goofs
20
Joe H. Palmer, “The Pimlico Special,” October 29, 1938, The Story of Seabiscuit, 57
21
Laura Hillenbrand, Seabiscuit: An American Legend, (New York: Random House, 2001),141
22
Edward L. Bowen, “War Admiral,” Thoroughbred Legends, No. 17, Eclipse Press, (Lexington, KY: 2002), 119;
Albert Mroz, Charles Howard – Buick Salesman of the Century,
<httlp://www.prewarbuick.com/features/charles_s_howard> accessed: 10/8/2007.
23
Albert Mroz, Charles Howard – Buick Salesman of the Century,
<httlp://www.prewarbuick.com/features/charles_s_howard> accessed: 10/8/2007.
24
Ibid.
6
documentary of the horse’s career. At the beginning of the film, Howard states, “It has been my
good fortune to own Seabiscuit… an honest horse whose big heart and physical prowess
definitely placed him among the Thoroughbred immortals of turf history. Not just a horse…but
flesh and blood like you and I, with an understanding almost spiritual in quality.”25 Seabiscuit
became exactly what Howard wanted him to become: immortalized in the hearts and minds of
the people.
The culmination of these factors produced an attitude throughout the nation that sustained
the mythology of the race. People began to denigrate War Admiral’s performance from the first.
George Woolf, Seabiscuit’s jockey stated, “I saw something in the Admiral’s eyes that was
pitiful. He looked all broken up. I don’t think he will be good for another race. Horses, mister,
can have crushed hearts just like humans.”26 The press treated War Admiral as if he was similar
to a “pampered rich kid who had things handed to him.”27 Sportswriter Grantland Rice reported
that, “The Admiral had known only the softer years – the softer type of competition…he had run
against too many plow horses… in his soft, easy life. He had never tackled a Seabiscuit
before.”28 Remarks such as these should have diminished the importance of Seabiscuit’s win,
but they only served to egg the public on regarding their contempt for War Admiral. Regardless
of his Triple Crown and numerous stakes wins, War Admiral lost more than the race that day, he
lost his greatness in public estimation.
In the same way that public response denigrated War Admiral, it immortalized
Seabiscuit. His legacy is evidenced by the hundreds of letters that came pouring in after that
fateful day in 1938 from adoring fans nationwide. They came from people of all ages and all
25
Charles Howard, Seabiscuit: The Lost Documentary, 1939 B&W, 2003 color.
Bowen, “War Admiral,”125
27
Ibid, 125-126.
28
Ibid, 126.
26
7
walks of life writing to convey some sort of message to the four-legged creature in whom they
placed their hope. Children and adults wrote letters to either Charles Howard, to be directed to
Seabiscuit, or they directed them to the horse itself. One man wrote, “Somehow Seabiscuit has
come to be more than a great horse with a phenomenal record. He seems more like a personal
friend…Who knows? Perhaps in that beautiful head of his he feels the affection many feel for
him.”29 An eight year old boy wrote the following in 1940, “They say Challedon is a good
horse, he beat Kayak II but that doesn’t make much difference because Seabiscuit beat Kayak II
and in excellent time. This time has never been equaled by Challedon and I think Challedon is
just another War Admiral.”30 The American populace placed imaginary wings on a horse in
order to provide hope for a nation, believing that he was great enough to fly.
This legacy was not the end of the story. War Admiral raced two more times after his
trial with Seabiscuit. He won both races. His phenomenal career was not lost on true horsemen.
He was a coveted breeding stallion, being retired after his last race in February of 1939. His
progeny live on today as some of the most successful horses on the track, including Seattle Slew,
a Triple Crown winner, and Silver Charm, one of the greatest race horses of the 1990s. War
Admiral died in 1959 at the age of twenty-five. Seabiscuit, in contrast, lived to be only fourteen
years old. Although two of his offspring performed fairly well on the track, they were not
considered to be worthy of great mention. Nonetheless, the public demonstrated an unswerving
devotion to this hero they had created. A guest book that was kept outside of Seabiscuit’s stall is
a testament to this fact. Over 33,000 visitors signed their names in a period of only 212 days in
the spring of 1941.31
29
Letters to Seabiscuit, Barbara Howard, ed., Seven Locks Press (Santa Ana, CA: 2003), 15.
Ibid, 65.
31
“Tourist Attraction,” September 27, 1941, The Story of Seabiscuit, 86.
30
8
While the mythology surrounding the race and the two horses is just that, a myth, it has
long served a purpose. The horses batted each other in the match race while the nation battled
through the Great Depression. The public wanted and needed hope and they found that hope in
Seabiscuit. Historians appreciate that need, but the reality should not be dismissed. This was not
a race between David and Goliath. This was a race between two evenly-matched horses of great
skill that exemplifies the determination and abilities of two accomplished racehorse teams. The
reality of the Seabiscuit-War Admiral match race demonstrated that people do not have to
believe in a Pegasus to get an incredible story.
9