Has Seabiscuit Been Over- Touted as a '30s Hero?

Wall Street Journal ^ | Wednesday, July 30, 2003 | ALLEN BARRA

[presidio9]

Adapted from Laura Hillenbrand's bestseller and with narration by historian David McCullough, the film version of "Seabiscuit" seems destined to become the official version of the rags-to-riches horse and his place in the history of the Depression. If you picked up a newspaper or magazine or switched on an entertainment program last weekend, you heard that Seabiscuit was "the most beloved athletic figure" or even "the most famous icon" in America in the late 1930s, surpassing (to cite just three names pulled out of last weekend's stories hooked to the film's release) Clark Gable, Lou Gehrig and Franklin D. Roosevelt in popularity.

[Mears]

Here we have a feel good movie and someone has to question it's facts. With all the crap on the screen today I found the movie quite entertaining.

I also read the book and saw the PBS special so I'm on Seabiscuit overload,but I still enjoyed learning about this horse.

It beats some of the reality shows on TV by a mile,or should I say furlong.

[Bluntpoint]

I heard Seabiscuit drank alot and beat his mares and colts.

[Arkie2]

Pure carping. The author of this piece doesn't mention that thousands showed up at whistle stops just to look at the horse. Horses were far more a part of the American psyche in the 30's as many people could still remember a time before the automobile and farms were still operated with horsepower.

[AnAmericanMother]

Seabiscuit sort of caught the public eye in a slow race year, but he really wasn't all THAT good a horse. As this article points out, his breeding was excellent (not that that means anything necessarily, I have an extremely well bred mare that couldn't catch cold if you spotted her five furlongs.) And as a stallion, he was a bust. We've had this argument before on other threads, but it's my personal opinion that since racing is to "improve the breed", the very best racehorses have to perform at stud.

I think he's one of the "hard luck horses", like Exterminator and Black Gold, that catch the fancy of the racing reporter and, sometimes, the public 'cause they make a good story. A well bred horse that eats his hay, goes out and races, earns some money for his owner, and retires to make more of the same, just doesn't make much of a plot for a movie.

[carton253]

Talk about missing the point...

[Dead Corpse]

My wife thinks this movie looks so overdone and melodramatic that they ought to rename it "Airbiscuit" to better reflect its flatulatory nature.

[Bluntpoint]

Did the movie go into all the cosmetic surgury Seabiscuit had to hide his sway-back?

[Bluntpoint]

I also heard Seabiscuit had an on again/off again affair with his farrier.

[vetvetdoug]

Seabiscuit IMHO was a hero, screw the ones that are trying to diminish the horse's accomplishments. I was reared listening to stories about those that had seen the races and to the ones that were there, saw it, experienced it, and without any exception, they say Seabiscuit was exceptional.

[Axenolith]

Won't be long before someone starts touting that he preffered stallions...

[tang-soo]

Seabiscuit sort of caught the public eye in a slow race year, but he really wasn't all THAT good a horse

I guess setting the track record at an age of seven (after recovering from a broken leg) in the big race against War Admiral as well as the second fastest time in North America for that distance does not count as "THAT good a horse". I have not yet seen the movie but saw the PBS special last night. Nobody could have written a better book or made a better movie than the real story.

[Bluntpoint]

I have not heard that.

I know he went "Hollywood" and started wearing designer "plated " shoes and had silicon injections in his whithers.

He also had his hocks capped.

And he had his sheath pierced.

[D1X1E]

ZZZZZZ..its just a horse people

[AnAmericanMother]

Look, I have nothing against the horse, he was a 30's popular hero, but he's not in the very top drawer. Man O' War, Secretariat, Bold Ruler, Citation . . . THAT's top drawer.

Seabiscuit was only 33/89. He was probably over-raced, since he was a claimer and took over 10 races to break his maiden. (Classic rags-to-riches story, there.) War Admiral won the Triple Crown and 21/26. He also was an outstanding sire (40 stakes winners), while Seabiscuit's get basically went nowhere. The match race was one of those "on any given day" events.

[Bluntpoint]

horse people

Isn't Sarah Jessica Parker a "horse person?"

[Elvis van Foster]

The WSJ piece was full of guesswork by a lazy author who didn't do his homework. Instead of making lame statements ("It's difficult to believe that even Seabiscuit's greatest race generated more headlines or inspired more people than Joe Louis's June 22, 1938, heavyweight championship rematch with Max Schmeling, Adolf Hitler's chosen representative of the Master Race."), why didn't he leaf through reels of microfilm like the Seabiscuit author did and find out.

[vetvetdoug]

Sarah Jessica Parkers' family included Eeyore. I don't which end she favors the most.

[Zansman]

IMHO, the book was was of the best pieces of non-fiction I've read in a loooooong time. Not only did LH really bring the story to life, I thought she did a fantastic job of describing the era as well (as do The Devil In The White City and Close To Shore if you enjoy these types of books).

Yea, the movie left out quite a bit and there was a ton of "creative license" taken but I thought it was pretty darned entertaining.

The Biscuit may not have been "that great", but the story of his success certainly is.