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Ezine Ready

Santa Anita

Located in sunny Arcadia, California, Santa Anita offers Thoroughbred racing from December through April every year. It first opened on Christmas Day, 1934 and has the distinction of being the oldest racetrack in Southern California. During World War II, the track was used as an assembly center for Japanese Americans. Home of the Breeders' Cup, Santa Anita is a proving ground for some of the best horses in the country.

While many famous horses like Silky Sullivan, Alysheba, Spectacular Bid, Affirmed and others have raced at Santa Anita, the most famous horse associated with Santa Anita is Seabiscuit. This scrawny, unremarkable horse took the nation by storm during the Great Depression, giving the populace a horse they could identify with.

Seabiscuit was a grandson of the great Man o' War. His first two years of racing in Florida were unremarkable. In fact, he raced in many claiming races and yet remained unclaimed. Near the end of his third year, Charles Howard, a car dealer from San Francisco, bought the horse and shipped him to California. 1937 marked a new beginning for Seabiscuit. As a four-year-old, his first race was the Santa Anita Huntington Beach Handicap, which he won. By the end of a winning season, he was voted Older Horse of the Year, even though he lost the Santa Anita Handicap by a head.

In 1938, he again tried to win the Santa Anita Handicap and was again beaten… by a head. He did win the prestigious Bay Meadows Handicap and the Hollywood Gold Cup. With Seabiscuit being touted as the best race horse on the West Coast and War Admiral the best race horse in the East, it seemed inevitable that a match race would be set up between them. War Admiral had won the Triple Crown, and was a son of Man O' War. Seabiscuit was shipped back east, and the Pimlico Special was the race that would pit the two of them against each other. No other horses entered the race. Seabiscuit's regular jockey, Red Pollard, was injured, so he would be ridden by George Woolf. The horses were neck and neck all around the track until the homestretch. War Admiral began to tire, and Seabiscuit pulled ahead, setting a new track record.

Seabiscuit returned to his home track of Santa Anita. He went lame in 1939 and took quite a while to recover, but he was back on the track in 1940. His last race was the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap… a race he had lost twice before. He won this time, in front of 78,000 cheering spectators. Seabiscuit retired to a life of siring foals, exploring his owner's ranch, and being admired by visitors. After he died, a lifesize statue was erected at Santa Anita in the walking ring.

With all the champions that have set hoof onto this track, it has seen its share of stories. But Seabiscuit's remains special. In a time when our country needed something to cheer about, this unremarkable horse won the hearts of the nation. Santa Anita still honors him as well as his sometime jockey, George Woolf.

That is what makes horse racing one of the premier sports and a bettor's paradise, you are betting on an animal trained to do nothing more than win, what else could be better.

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