In the early 20th century, as America enters the
automobile age,
Charles S. Howard opens a bicycle shop in San Francisco. He is soon selling automobiles, becoming the largest car dealer in California and one of the Bay Area's richest men. In the wake of the
Great Depression, Canadian
John "Red" Pollard's family is financially ruined, and he is sent to live with a horse trainer. Years pass and Pollard becomes a jockey, but amateur boxing leaves him blind in one eye. After their young son is killed in an automobile accident, Howard's wife leaves him. He obtains a divorce in Mexico, where Pollard is struggling to make his mark as a jockey. Howard meets and marries Marcela Zabala. When he acquires a stable of racehorses, he hires itinerant horseman
Tom Smith as his trainer. Smith convinces him to buy a colt called
Seabiscuit. Though a grandson of the great
Man o' War and trained by the renowned
James E. Fitzsimmons, Seabiscuit is viewed as small, lazy, and unmanageable. Smith witnesses Pollard's similarly temperamental spirit, and hires him as Seabiscuit's jockey. Under Smith's innovative training, Seabiscuit becomes the most successful racehorse on the West Coast and an underdog hero to the public. Howard issues a challenge to
Samuel D. Riddle, owner of the East Coast champion and
Triple Crown-winning racehorse
War Admiral, but Riddle dismisses California racing as inferior. In the prestigious
Santa Anita Handicap, Seabiscuit takes the lead, but Pollard's impaired vision prevents him from noticing another horse surging up on the outside. Losing by a nose, Pollard admits his partial blindness to Smith. Howard declares that Pollard will remain Seabiscuit's jockey, and rallies public support for a
match race with War Admiral. Riddle agrees, on the condition that they race with a rope and bell instead of a
starting gate. With Seabiscuit at a disadvantage, Smith trains the horse to break fast at the sound of the bell. As the race approaches, Pollard severely fractures his leg in a riding accident. Informed he may never walk again, let alone ride, he recommends that his friend and skilled jockey
George Woolf ride Seabiscuit, advising him on the horse's handling and behavior from his hospital bed. The highly anticipated "race of the century" draws a sellout crowd, with 40 million more people listening on the radio. Seabiscuit takes an early lead until nearing the far turn; following Pollard's advice, Woolf slows Seabiscuit, allowing War Admiral to match Seabicuit's stride. Seabiscuit looks War Admiral in the eye before surging ahead and winning by four lengths, enthralling the nation. A few months later, Seabiscuit injures his leg. Pollard, still recovering from his own injury, tends to the horse as they both heal. When Seabiscuit is fit enough to race again, Howard brings him back to the Santa Anita Handicap; he is reluctant to allow Pollard to ride and risk crippling himself for life. At the urging of Woolf and Marcela, Howard relents. Pollard, using a self-made leg brace, discovers Woolf is also in the race on a new mount. Seabiscuit drops far behind the field; Woolf slows and pulls alongside Pollard, allowing Seabiscuit a good look at Woolf's mount. With Woolf's encouragement, Seabiscuit surges ahead. Heading for the finish line several lengths ahead, Pollard's voiceover explains that Seabiscuit was not merely a broken-down horse that three men fixed, but that Seabiscuit fixed them and, in a way, they fixed one another. ==Cast==