Comebacks
The story of Seabiscuit is a tale of recovering from setbacks. When Seabiscuit injures his ankle tendon in a race, most racing fans believe the famous little horse will have to be retired for life. Instead, he recovers and gradually returns to racing. His first few races post-injury are not fantastic successes, however his highly successful post-injury win at the Santa Anita Handicap is unprecedented in horse racing. But Seabiscuit is not the only character in the story to recover from a major setback.
Seabiscuit's jockey, "Red" Pollard, recovers from what could have been a career-ending injury in order to ride Seabiscuit to his most famous win in the Santa Anita Handicap race. Despite his broken leg, his blindness in one eye, and other physical problems, Red Pollard continued to have a racing career even after Seabiscuit retired.
Seabiscuit's owner, Charles Howard, is a self-made multimillionaire who gradually recovers from an emotionally devastating blow: the death of one of his sons in an auto accident. The loss consumes him entirely at first, helping to destroy his first marriage. His second wife, Marcela, is one major factor in Charles Howard's emotional recovery but Seabiscuit is another.
Generational Conflict
In any sport there is always a struggle between the older, more established athletes and their up-and coming rivals. But there is a generational conflict between human characters as well.
Charles Howard's surviving son, Lin Howard, has a rival stable in cooperation with the singer Bing Crosby. Lin has a good-natured sports rivalry with his father that gradually becomes more serious as Seabiscuit is acknowledged as being one of the most eminent racehorses in the country. The father-son rivalry increases as Charles and Lin place side bets on horses from their respective stables, and Lin loses repeatedly.
The rivalry reaches its peak when the Howards agree to race Seabiscuit against Ligaroti, Lin's horse. The race is one of the most controversial ones in history, with both jockeys fouling one another. It led to an allegation of race-fixing that was blown up by the media but not substantiated by investigation. The controversy from the race against Ligaroti, which Seabiscuit wins, is one of the factors that makes Howard decide to send Seabiscuit east to face War Admiral.
The tension between father and son, which is not discussed in the movie based on the book, is a major factor in the decisions Charles Howard made regarding Seabiscuit's career.
Gaming the System
To game the system is to operate within the rules while still maximizing one's advantage. The sport of horse racing, like many other sports, is subject to rules. A significant part of the book is devoted to the unusual behaviors people and animals adopt in order to get what they need and want despite being in a very artificial environment.
Jockeys are subject to strict weight limits but game the system by resorting to many unhealthy techniques such as purging, vomiting, and restricting their caloric intake. The book describes how Woolf, Pollard, and other jockeys took extremely unhealthy risks and endured severe discomfort in order to keep their weights low enough to ride.
Tom Smith, Seabiscuit's trainer, games the system by finding races for Seabiscuit to run in where he can race well and win without injuring himself or drawing negative attention from the impost handicappers. The hadicap races in which Seabiscuit runs require faster horses to carry more weight. Should Seabiscuit win too much, he will be required to carry more weight at the Santa Anita and therefore risk injury. Smith also "scratches" or removes Seabiscuit's name from the race list frequently, because the horse cannot run well in the rain. Although Smith is a very ethical trainer who does not allow cheating or doping, after Seabiscuit's retirement he is implicated in a cheating scandal when a groom hired by him is caught administering an illegal nasal spray to one of the horses. Although he was cleared in the mind of the public and most racing experts, the Racing Commission insisted on penalizing him, and Smith was still banned from racing for a full year.
Seabiscuit himself games the system by constantly finding ways to rest and overeat as much as his owner and trainers will allow. He outwits stable hands and trainers alike.
