Seabiscuit Quotes

“Old Pops and I have got four good legs between us...Maybe that’s enough.”

“The racehorse, by virtue of his awesome physical gifts, freed the jockey from himself. When a horse and a jockey flew over the track together, there were moments in which the man’s mind wedded itself to the animal’s body to form something greater than the sum of both parts.”

“I got a great ride...The greatest ride I ever got from the greatest horse that ever lived.”

“It’s easy to talk to a horse if you understand his language. Horses stay the same from the day they are born until the day they die. They are only changed by the way people treat them.”

“Character reigns preeminent in determining potential.”

“The whole country is divided into two camps...People who never saw a horse race in their lives are taking sides. If the issue were deferred another week, there would be a civil war between the War Admiral Americans and the Seabiscuit Americans.”

“The little horse had drawn more newspaper coverage in 1938 than Roosevelt, who was Second, Hitler (third), Mussolini (fourth), or any other newsmaker. His match with War Admiral was almost certainly the single biggest news story of the year and one of the biggest sports moments of the century.”

“We had to rebuild him, both mentally and physically, but you don’t have to rebuild the heart when it’s already there”

“The affection that this inarticulate brown horse had aroused...was a most amazing thing.”

“So long, Charley.”

“Every time the horse set foot on the course, someone would cry out, ‘Here comes the Biscuit!’ and the track would come to a dead standstill.”

“Why rate him? He knows the poles better than I do.”

“He believed with complete conviction that no animal was permanently ruined. Every horse could be improved. He lived by a single maxim: ‘Learn your horse. Each one is an individual, and once you penetrate his mind and heart, you can often work wonders with an otherwise intractable beast.‘”