09/06/2026
John "Red" Pollard: The Man Who Saw With One Eye — and Saw Further Than Anyone Else🐎
Some said he was finished. Blind in one eye from a training accident — a secret he carried for years just to keep riding — with ribs broken more times than he could count, Red Pollard looked like a story already written: a jockey burned out too soon, destined to fade into the anonymity of the minor circuits.
Then came Seabiscuit. A cantankerous horse nobody wanted. Their meeting in 1936 at the Detroit Fair Grounds changed everything. Together they raced 30 times, winning 18 — all stakes or handicap races. When Pollard broke his ribs in February 1938, he was forced to watch from the sidelines as the famous match race against War Admiral unfolded, with George Woolf in the saddle instead. But fate wasn't done with him yet. On March 2, 1940, in front of 78,000 spectators, Pollard and Seabiscuit — both coming back from injuries that seemed career-ending — finally claimed the Santa Anita Handicap, the prize that had twice slipped through their fingers. It was Seabiscuit's last race.
Some victories aren't measured in seconds, but in everything you had to lose before you could win them🐎
