1665 |
A piece of grassy pasture land on Long Island becomes the first official racetrack in North America. |
1730 |
Bulle Rock, the first Thoroughbred horse in the American colonies, arrives from England. |
1750 |
American horse breeders and racers establish the Jockey Club. Today, the club still defines standards and regulations for racing, racecourses and breeding. |
1770 |
In retaliation for the British Stamp Act, American colonists pass the Non-Importation Act. Horse breeders and owners suspend the importation of Thoroughbreds from England. |
1798 |
English racing legend Diomed is imported to Virginia. Having failed as a stud in England, and with his best days thought to be behind him, the 21-year-old stallion adapts happily to American life, siring so many children that he will be considered the father of American Thoroughbreds.
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1821 |
The first "skinned" racecourse opens. The dirt track, Union Race Course on Long Island, is much faster than grass and will become the model for future tracks. |
1823 |
Thoroughbreds American Eclipse and Sir Henry meet in three four-mile races at Union Race Course for a first North versus South match-up. The Northern contender, Eclipse, wins. A North-South horse racing rivalry will continue up until the Civil War. |
1840 |
Westward-moving settlers take horse racing with them, establishing the sport in Illinois, Missouri, Texas, and Louisiana. |
1850s |
Prospectors heading to the Gold Rush bring Thoroughbreds to California. |
1861 |
Thoroughbred racing suffers a huge setback during the Civil War. The breeding centers of Virginia and the Carolinas are destroyed. Thoroughbreds are pushed into military service.
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1863 |
A new racetrack opens in Saratoga, New York. The state is on its way to becoming the center of American racing. |
1866 |
Jerome Park Race Course opens in New York City and becomes the headquarters of the American Jockey Club. |
1867 |
The first Belmont Stakes is run at Jerome Park. The race will later move to Belmont Park and become the third and final jewel in the Triple Crown.
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1873 |
The first Preakness Stakes, which will become the second race of the Triple Crown, is run at Pimlico Course in Maryland. |
1875 |
The Kentucky Derby is first run at the Louisville Jockey Club Course, later known as Churchill Downs. It will become the first trophy in the Triple Crown. |
1881 |
An American-bred horse, Iroquois, wins the English Derby for the first time, proving the worth of American horses internationally. By the mid-1890s, American Thoroughbreds will be imported to Japan. |
1900 |
Horse racing fans can bet at over 300 racetracks across the country, but members of the rising progressive movement include gambling among the social ills they campaign to reform. |
1903 |
Charles Howard, who will later own Seabiscuit, arrives in San Francisco, California, with 21 cents to his name. |
1905 |
Howard manages to convince Detroit automobile manufacturer Will Durant to let him open a California Buick dealership. Howard starts with three cars. |
1906 |
April 18: The San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fires destroy everything in a 4.7-square-mile area, including 28,000 buildings. Charles Howard uses automobiles from his Buick showroom as rescue vehicles when horses are injured or refuse to go down burning streets. |
1908 |
Under the progressives' new anti-gambling laws, only 25 American racetracks are still operating. Some racetracks begin using the pari-mutuel system, a French wagering system that replaces corrupt bookmakers. The payment received for a win is determined by the number of bets placed on each horse. A fixed percentage of the total amount wagered goes to the track and taxes. |
1909 |
Gambling corruption at racetracks leads the California state legislature to ban betting on horses. |
1910 |
Betting on horses becomes illegal in New York.
May 31: George Woolf, who will ride Seabiscuit in the great match race with War Admiral, is born.
November 1: Red Pollard, Seabiscuit's jockey, is born. |
1915 |
A filly named Regret wins the Kentucky Derby, running against a field of colts.
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1919 |
After World War I, horse racing booms. Tracks are now free from the problems of wartime rationing and limited transportation. Increased use of the pari-mutuel system is slowly helping to make betting on horses legal again. More racetracks open.
Sir Barton becomes the first horse to win all three of the most important stakes races for three-year-olds: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes. This series of races will later be known as the Triple Crown. |
1926 |
May 8: Charles Howard, now wealthy from selling automobiles, and his wife Fannie Mae lose their son Frankie in a car crash. |
1928 |
Taking advantage of the ban on betting in California, Agua Caliente Racecourse in Tijuana, Mexico, opens. |
1929 |
Charles Howard, who is increasingly estranged from his wife, meets Marcela Zabala, the older sister of his son's wife.
Tracks use mechanical starting gates for the first time.
October 29: The U.S. stock market crashes, triggering the Great Depression, the worst economic collapse in the history of the modern industrial world. |
1930 |
A sportswriter coins the term "Triple Crown" when Gallant Fox wins the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes.
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1932 |
Charles Howard marries Marcela Zabala. They share a passion for horse racing. |
1933 |
Racetrack betting becomes legal in California. Over the next six years, betting on horses will become legal again in 21 states, as Depression-era governments struggle to find revenue. Times are tough: one in four Americans is unemployed, and the average annual salary for those working is $1,367.
March 4: In his inaugural address President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tells Americans, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself..." A week later, nearly 60 million people sit by their radios to listen to Roosevelt's first "fireside chat." |
1934 |
May 23: Seabiscuit is born. He is the descendant of the great Thoroughbred Man o' War, through his son Hard Tack.
Fall: James "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons, a successful Thoroughbred conditioner and Seabiscuit's first trainer, notes Seabiscuit's speed in workouts. Fitzsimmons uses the whip on Seabiscuit to break the horse's lazy habits.
Tom Smith seeks work at Agua Caliente in Tijuana, Mexico. There he meets Charles Howard, who hires him as his horse trainer.
December 25: The $3 million Santa Anita Race Track opens outside Los Angeles. |
1935 |
June 11: Two-year-old Seabiscuit loses his seventeenth consecutive race. Though he is racing in poor company, he has yet to win a single race. |
1936 |
June 29: Tom Smith and Seabiscuit meet at Suffolk Downs outside Boston, Massachusetts. They look at each other and nod. Recognizing something special about the horse, Smith leans over the rail and whispers to Seabiscuit, "I'll see you again."
August 3: Charles and Marcela Howard see Seabiscuit win a race at Saratoga. Tom Smith looks the horse over and tells Howard to buy Seabiscuit.
August 16: Red Pollard, traveling around looking for work as a jockey, walks into the Detroit Race Track, where he meets Tom Smith and Seabiscuit. Smith sees that Pollard and Seabiscuit are compatible.
September 7: Seabiscuit achieves his first big win in the Governor's Handicap, winning over half his purchase price. It is the fiftieth race of his career, and the first in which he displays a new-found inclination for racing.
October: Baseball dominates the sports news. In his rookie season, Joe DiMaggio takes the New York Yankees to the World Series. He hits a scorching .346 in his first World Series against the Giants and the Yankees are again baseball champions, the first time since 1932.
October 24: Long-shot Seabiscuit wins the Scarsdale Handicap, a mid-level stakes race. The fierce contest is won by mere inches, in a photo finish.
November: President Franklin Roosevelt receives a second overwhelming mandate at the polls, with 61% of the popular vote.
November 28: Seabiscuit wins the Bay Bridge Handicap by five lengths, clocking the fifth fastest mile on record at the time.
December 12: Seabiscuit wins the World's Fair Handicap easily. He jogs down the stretch alone, to wild cheers and Pollard's futile attempts to slow his speed.
December 18: Seabiscuit arrives at Santa Anita and is welcomed by a skeptical press corps.
Winter: A few bad breaks prevent Seabiscuit from racing and cultivate his laziness and love of food -- setting him back in his conditioning for the Santa Anita Handicap, a race with an unheard-of $100,000 purse. |
