Episode Details

Seabiscuit lost his first 17 races, was offered in claiming races for $2,500 with no takers, and preferred eating and sleeping to work. Yet in 1938 he was the biggest newsmaker in the United States. This deep dive explores how a small, knobby-kneed descendant of Man o' War defied expectations during the Great Depression.

We meet the team that turned him around: owner Charles Howard, quiet trainer Tom Smith, and jockey Red Pollard, who hid blindness in one eye. We follow the heartbreaking Santa Anita loss by a nose, the burden of handicap weights, the match race against War Admiral heard by an estimated 40 million radio listeners, and the joint recovery of horse and rider that led to a final victory in 1940.

• Why a grueling 35-race schedule as a two-year-old masked Seabiscuit's potential
• How Tom Smith's patience and Red Pollard's empathy created the right environment
• How Pollard's hidden blind eye cost them the 1937 Santa Anita Handicap
• Tom Smith's secret starting bell training that helped beat Triple Crown winner War Admiral at Pimlico
• The ruptured suspensory ligament, the shared recovery with Pollard, and the 1940 Santa Anita win