Seabiscuit

Red Pollard was Seabiscuit’s primary jockey. Blind in one eye, he kept his ailment a secret. As he rode Seabiscuit to victory after victory, who would have ever suspected that problem?

Pollard, who had ridden horses since he was a young boy, was the third member of Seabiscuit’s private “triple crown.” All three men (Howard, Smith and Pollard) were indispensable players in Seabiscuit’s drive to fame. But the renowned horse never competed for horse-racing’s top prize. The triple crown (winning the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes) is only available to three-year-olds. When Seabiscuit was a three-year-old colt, he was not in top-notch form. He never raced for the triple crown.

When "The Biscuit" was four years old, in 1937, Pollard helped his favorite horse to dramatically improve. He won the Massachusetts Handicap purse of $70,530, in record-breaking time, at Suffolks Downs in August of that year.

It was just the start of really great things.