Seabiscuit (film)

Three men, Red Pollard, Charles S. Howard, and Tom Smith come together as the principal jockey, owner, and trainer of the champion race horse Seabiscuit, rising from individual troubled times to achieve fame and success through their association with the horse.

Pollard's Canadian family is financially ruined by the Great Depression. Desperately needing money, his parents give up custody of him and find him a work situation with a horse trainer. Pollard eventually becomes a jockey and makes extra money through illegal boxing matches, one of which leaves him blind in one eye.

Howard runs a bicycle shop in San Francisco. A passing motorist asks him to repair his steam automobile, a new technology. Seeing an opportunity, Howard begins selling automobiles, eventually becoming the largest car dealer in California and one of the Bay Area's richest men. When his young son, Frankie, is killed in an automobile accident, Howard falls into a deep depression, eventually resulting in his wife leaving him.

While in Mexico to obtain a divorce, Howard meets Marcela Zabala. After later marrying her, Howard acquires a stable of race horses. He has a chance encounter with skilled horse trainer and drifter Tom Smith. Howard hires Smith to manage his stables. Smith convinces Howard to acquire a colt, "Seabiscuit", who comes from noted lineage but had been deemed "incorrigible" by past handlers.

Smith has difficulty finding a jockey able to handle Seabiscuit's temperament. After witnessing Pollard brawling with other stable boys, Smith recognizes him as a kindred spirit to the feisty horse and hires Pollard as Seabiscuit's jockey. Seabiscuit and Pollard become close, and they begin to race together. After overcoming early difficulties, such as a dismissive media along with Pollard's anger issues and blind eye, Seabiscuit earns considerable success and becomes a popular underdog to the millions affected by the Great Depression.

Inspired, Howard challenges New York tycoon Samuel Riddle and his champion race horse, "War Admiral", to a match race. Riddle initially refuses & mocks Seabiscuit to the press, but after a public campaign by Howard, Riddle eventually bows to public pressure and accepts the challenge with conditions, including that the race be held at War Admiral's home track, Pimlico Race Course. Smith begins to train Seabiscuit to break more quickly than he usually does when the race begins in order to keep up with War Admiral. He does this via unusual methods, such as training Seabiscuit at night. As the race approaches, Pollard is injured in a riding accident, severely fracturing his leg. Unable to ride, Pollard recommends that Howard invite his old friend, skilled jockey George Woolf to ride Seabiscuit in the match race.

Before the race, Pollard advises Woolf on Seabiscuit's handling and behavior from his hospital bed. He tells Woolf to allow War Admiral to catch up to Seabiscuit shortly before the final turn, and then, to let Seabiscuit look War Admiral in the eye before turning him loose. Before a sellout crowd and with many more listening on the radio across the country, Seabiscuit wins the match race with Woolf aboard, delighting the nation. A few months later, Seabiscuit is racing at Santa Anita and injures his leg. With both he and Seabiscuit suffering from an injured leg, Pollard helps Seabiscuit to recover while also getting himself fit enough to race again. Howard enters Seabiscuit into the Santa Anita Handicap, but is reluctant to allow Pollard to ride Seabiscuit in the race, fearful that he will cripple himself for the rest of his life or die. After both Woolf & Marcela ask him to allow Pollard to ride Seabiscuit in the race, Howard relents.

On the day of the Santa Anita Handicap and before a sellout crowd, Pollard is once again aboard Seabiscuit, using a self-made brace on his leg. Woolf is riding a different horse in the race. Seabiscuit & Pollard suffer a bad break from the gate and drop far behind the pack. Woolf pulls his horse alongside Pollard and lets Seabiscuit get a good look at his mount. Seabiscuit suddenly surges ahead and breaks away from the pack. As he heads toward the finish line, a voiceover from Pollard explains that everyone believes that the story of Seabiscuit is of three men who fixed a broken down horse, but that in actuality, Seabiscuit fixed all three of them and that in a way, they all also fixed one another. As Seabiscuit and Pollard cross the finish line in 1st with Howard and Smith beaming and the crowd wildly cheering, the screen slowly fades to black.

• Tobey Maguire as John "Red" Pollard
• Jeff Bridges as Charles S. Howard
• Chris Cooper as Tom Smith
• Elizabeth Banks as Marcela Zabala-Howard
• Gary Stevens as George Woolf
• William H. Macy as "Tick Tock" McLaughlin
• Eddie Jones as Samuel Riddle

The film was shot at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California, Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky and Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. Keeneland doubled for Pimlico Race Course because Pimlico had dramatically changed physically since Seabiscuit's time. Additional filming took place in Hidden Valley, California. The film also marks a second collaboration between director Gary Ross and actors Tobey Maguire and William H. Macy, who worked together in Ross's 1998 film Pleasantville.

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