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    Seabiscuit: The Saga of A Great Champion
    Seabiscuit: The Saga of A Great Champion
    Seabiscuit: The Saga of A Great Champion
    Ebook130 pages1 hour

    Seabiscuit: The Saga of A Great Champion

    By B. K. Beckwith and Grantland Rice

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Seabiscuit: The Saga of a Great Champion is the first complete story of the legendary thoroughbred who captured the heart of a nation. Noted track writer B. K. Beckwith called Seabiscuit’s career a saga because, like a Greek myth or beloved fairy tale, it is the tale of a forgotten, abused animal who was rescued, fought his way to the top of horse racing, stumbled, and then returned for a spectacular victory.

    First published in 1940, when Seabiscuit and all the major characters were alive, its pages sparkle with stories about the great horse: the moment when trainer Tom Smith noticed the emaciated bay in a cheap claims race at Saratoga Springs, the events that led Charles Howard to take a chance and buy the “raced-out” three-year old colt with bad legs, and the exhilarating accounts from jockeys Red Pollard and George “Iceman’ Woolf of Seabiscuit’s trademark bursts of speed. Under Smith s training and care, Seabiscuit would defeat the Triple Crown champion, War Admiral, by four lengths in the most famous match race in history.

    Featuring period photographs and specially commissioned artwork by Howard Brodie, Seabiscuit: The Saga of a Great Champion follows the thoroughbred’s illustrious career, from his humble birth in Kentucky to his remarkable string of races across the country from 1936 to 1940, and culminating in his stunning victory at Santa Anita, a moment that confirmed Seabiscuit as one of the greatest racehorses of all time.

    “His courage, honesty, and physical prowess definitely place him among the thoroughbred immortals of turf history. He has intelligence and understanding almost spiritual in quality, and all of us who are close to ‘Biscuit’ naturally have the deepest affection for him.”—Charles S. Howard, Owner

    “Seabiscuit is the greatest horse I ever rode.”—George Woolf, Hall of Fame Jockey
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGolden Springs Publishing
    Release dateAug 9, 2016
    ISBN9781787200593
    Seabiscuit: The Saga of A Great Champion
    Author

    B. K. Beckwith

    B. K. BECKWITH (1902-1981) is the author of Step and Go Together: The World of Horses and Horsemanship and The Longden Legend. GRANTLAND RICE (1880-1954) was the dean of American sportswriters. He popularized the sportswriter’s role and coined some of the most memorable phrases in sports reporting.

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    • 5/5
      I just love sea biscuit! All horses are so cool! This book helped me know more about seabiscuit.

    Book preview

    Seabiscuit - B. K. Beckwith

    This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.pp-publishing.com

    To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books—picklepublishing@gmail.com

    Or on Facebook

    Text originally published in 1940 under the same title.

    © Pickle Partners Publishing 2016, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

    Publisher’s Note

    Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

    We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

    SEABISCUIT: THE SAGA OF A GREAT CHAMPION

    BY

    B. K. BECKWITH

    DRAWINGS BY HOWARD BRODIE

    FOREWORD BY GRANTLAND RICE

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    Contents

    TABLE OF CONTENTS 8

    PICTURE CREDITS 9

    FOREWORD 10

    DEDICATION 12

    CHAPTER ONE—IT CAN’T BE DONE 14

    CHAPTER TWO—SWAYING ON SPINDLY LEGS 22

    CHAPTER THREE—THE FUNNY LITTLE HORSE 28

    CHAPTER FOUR—A HUNCH ABOUT A HORSE 32

    CHAPTER FIVE—PUMPKIN 40

    CHAPTER SIX—ROSEMONT—SEABISCUIT 50

    CHAPTER SEVEN—HANG ON TO YOURS HATS 54

    CHAPTER EIGHT—STAGEHAND BY TWO AND ONE-HALF INCHES 59

    CHAPTER NINE—I THINK I’LL BUY TWO TICKETS 67

    CHAPTER TEN—A CHAMPION FALTERS 70

    CHAPTER ELEVEN—IN THE CALIFORNIA HILLS 74

    CHAPTER TWELVE—IT CAN BE DONE 80

    REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 86

    PICTURE CREDITS

    4,24,29,32,35,50, 54, 59,62, 63,64, Carroll Photo Service; 8, 20, 42, Haase Photos; 12, Sutcliffe Pictures; 17, Tom Kelley; 46, Turf Pix, Morgan Photo Service, Morton & Co.

    Frontispiece, Reproduction of an original painting of Seabiscuit by F. R. Voss Printed in Canada

    FOREWORD

    HERE is a chunk of rawhide, surrounding a heart of iron, planked upon the four flying legs of a gazelle. Here is a combination of stretch thunder and wire lightning entered under the homely sobriquet of Seabiscuit, the horse that always gave you all he had, and often just a little bit more.

    I saw him get the jump on the famed War Admiral at Pimlico in one of the great match races of all time. I saw War Admiral close up the gap and as they hit the head of the stretch, eye to eye, I could almost hear Seabiscuit say—We’re in the stretch now. This is where it counts. Let’s see who can run.

    I saw the game and gallant Biscuit break down at Santa Anita in 1939. I saw him limp from the track in the direction of a pasture—and racing oblivion. He was then six years old, a veteran whose flying feet had churned up dust from Texas to New England, from California to Florida, crossing the country from one ocean to another, moving from one box car to another in his transcontinental tour.

    I saw him come from retirement in 1940 at Santa Anita, tackling one of the toughest slogans of sport—They don’t come back. And then from No Man’s Land of racing, out from the mists and the fogs, the Mighty Atom from the equine world, proved the value of character and courage, the double value of heart and hoof. Seabiscuit came up the hard way. Grandson of Man O’War, he was never the pampered scion of a world renowned grandsire. To this fact I think he owes at least part of his greatness. The racing world left him on his own—and he accepted the challenge. Greatness was born within him. He had nothing exceptional to show on the outside. In this respect he was just another horse. He proved that while beauty may be only skin deep, the true greatness must reach the unfathomed soul.

    The racing public that knew him, loved him I think, above any other horse that ever ran, not even barring Man O’War. He was one of the mob or crowd, no spectacular prancer that caught your eye. Man O’War was retired in his third year. Seabiscuit was retired in his sixth year and he still had enough left to set an all-time winning mark. Man O’War was never called upon to face the vital test of competition—Can you come back? Seabiscuit was. And it is here you get the true story of the most dramatic thoroughbred American racing has ever known.

    There may be faster horses later on who will win more money. But there will never be a gamer horse—and I don’t believe there will ever be another Seabiscuit. I think you will agree with me when you have read the story of his career.

    Grantland Rice

    DEDICATION

    Being the owner of Seabiscuit is an honor and privilege of which I am deeply appreciative. His courage, honesty and physical prowess definitely place him among the thoroughbred immortals of turf history. He has intelligence and understanding almost spiritual in quality and all of us who are close to ‘Biscuit naturally have the deepest affection for him. The thrills he has given us will never be equaled unless one or more of his sons proves equal to the task of carrying on where the champion left off.

    CHAPTER ONE—IT CAN’T BE DONE

    IT can’t be done, they said. All night before the race they said I it...all manner of men...all over the world....It can’t be done—they never come back.

    They said it over gleaming dinner tables, in club rooms, in good motor cars, in beaneries and barrooms, in pubs and palaces, in the air and on the ground, by phone, by wire, by daylight and by dark....A great horse, sir—but champions don’t come back.

    Yet they kept their fingers crossed, and they prayed a bit, for they loved the old horse...so long now his gallant hoofbeats had drummed upon their hearts.

    It can’t be done, said the taxi driver to his midnight fare. I tell you it’s askin’ too much of him. High weight and a hard field. As I was sayin’ to my missus....

    Laid up for nine months, interrupted the fare. No—he’s in too tough, even for him. But, by George, they’ll know they’ve been in a horse race.

    Now take Dempsey or Jeffries, said the bartender as he polished a glass, they couldn’t make it—legs go, maybe a bit of the heart goes too. Champions don’t....

    They said it in crowded trollies and roaring subways; they said it over back fences in the long twilight; they argued over it in a million hotel lobbies that spanned the spinning earth.

    "Ah come from old Kaintucky, myself, said the hotel cook to the second maid. Me an that little hoss—a long way from home. I’d sho like to see him do it."

    Standing in the darkness of a shed row, looking into a lighted box stall, an angular, tight-lipped man said slowly:

    "They’ll see—he can do it."

    Facing him, a little, hard, bay horse stood ankle deep in his straw bed, wide head hung forward, dozing. For the moment he seemed utterly unconcerned over the fact that on the morrow he would carry on his sturdy

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