Tom Smith After Seabiscuit

Posted by BarbaraAnne Helberg Mar 4, 2007

As all movies do, Seabiscuit: An American Legend relayed a few scenes that were not factual. The most glaring one was the supposed spying event.

Tom Smith, Seabiscuit's trainer; Charles Howard, the thoroughbred's owner, and John "Red" Pollard, the jockey, use stealth and binoculars in 1938 to view from behind a grassy knoll the "monster" that is War Admiral. The conversation among the men is far-fetched insofar as they refer to War Admiral, 1937's true life Triple Crown champion, as a monstrous 18 hands high.

Seabiscuit must take on this "monster" in a match race. How are they going to pull it off?

I think it's safe to say that this gross exaggeration of War Admiral's size was used to dramatize the duel to ensue that would pit lowly thought of and former claimer Seabiscuit against the Riddle barn's aristocratic TC champ.

War Admiral and Seabiscuit both measured in at around 15.2 hands. But you get the idea behind the over-sized drama.

Most of the story is about those three men meeting one another at the time Seabiscuit and they needed each other for a mutually beneficial ride of a lifetime. When you think of everything that came together to result in Seabiscuit becoming an American icon, it boggles the mind.

Three men and a horse.

Just a few years hence, a similar, but less circumstantial equine epic took place in Australia. The connections were strapper (groom) Tommy Woodcock, trainer Harry Telford, and American owner Dave Davis. The horse was a giant named Phar Lap.

In both cases, the men pushed on after the horses were gone. Tom Smith didn't necessarily go to bigger and better things - it didn't get much bigger than Seabiscuit at the time. But the trainer did have other winners: Mioland, Kayak II, and then Kentucky Derby winner Jet Pilot in 1947.

Silent Tom they called him, because he never had much to say around others. The press, of course, ever pressing forward diligent noses to get the latest story, lasered Smith with questions, and Smith, ever terse, drove them crazy with a lack of details. He even worked Seabiscuit at night to keep the news birds away.

Silent, or no, whatever Smith accomplished with Seabiscuit will forever remain historic. And certainly, it will remain as the major lifetime work of Silent Tom, the horse whisperer.