During a trip to the East Coast, where he thought he might find a great thoroughbred, Smith spotted a bad-tempered, knobby-kneed horse who’d been raced too often. But there was something about that horse which intrigued Smith. Something which made him think the horse - called Seabiscuit - could be a winner.

Smith (played by Chris Cooper) was right. He picked a jockey named Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire) to ride the Biscuit. Improving dramatically, Tom’s gamble was so fast he “burned the top off the racetrack” during his workouts. Although he’d never raced in the Derby, and was too old to take on rivals at Pimlico or Belmont, Seabiscuit was fast - really fast.

What if the misshapen horse (whose earlier owners had written him off) ran a match race against the fastest horse in 1938 America? What if the Biscuit traveled east, to Pimlico, to take on the reigning triple-crown winner, War Admiral?

In a race which many think was the best of the twentieth century, Seabiscuit (guided by George “Iceman” Woolf) beat War Admiral (a younger horse) by four lengths. Grantland Rice, a top sportswriter of the time, said it was “one of the greatest match races ever run in the ancient history of the turf.”

The Biscuit wasn’t quite finished, however - not then, and not now. In March of 1940, he captured the biggest purse in horse racing - the Santa Anita Handicap. Seven years later, while in his stall at Howard’s ranch, the great champion had a heart attack and died. (He was only fourteen.) In 2003, a film about him made his story come alive once again.

In this story behind the movie, meet the real Seabiscuit and his “triple crown” of supporters: Charles Howard, Tom Smith and Red Pollard. Watch a video of the 1938 match race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral, see previously unpublished photos and virtually visit Ridgewood Ranch, the champion’s final resting place.