JC / Railbird

Seabiscuit

Seabiscuit’s Fishy Finish

Vic Ziegel revisits Seabiscuit’s 1940 Santa Anita Handicap win:

One of sports’ greatest what-ifs took place 65 years ago today in the $100,000 Santa Anita Handicap, which was then racing’s richest prize. What if — and why didn’t — the jockey on Kayak II use his whip when he seemed ready to pass the leader near the finish line?

Kayak finished second and, the chart notes tell us, ‘might have been closer to the winner had he been vigorously ridden in the last sixteenth.’ Which is racing’s dignified way of saying, ‘You can smell it from here.’

Kayak’s owner didn’t complain, was thrilled in fact. He happened to own the winner as well. A 7-year-old, racing for the last time, named Seabiscuit.

Hm … Ziegel writes that owner Charles Howard was rooting for the win because it “would make Seabiscuit the game’s leading money-winner, and enhance his reputation when he went to stud.”

Posted in Racing on March 2, 2005 / Tagged Racing History, Seabiscuit