Red Pollard's Jockey CareerRed Pollard's career really took off for the first time in Tijuana, Mexico where he rode neck to neck with jockey, and friend, George Woolf. Both men were young, quick witted and tough. Pollard was a jockey by day and a street boxer by night under the nickname "Cougar". Nobody messed with Red Pollard.
Most jockeys at the time were uneducated teenage boys looking for a dime to help the family. Pollard took advantage of this and made up stories about his feats, telling how he once rode for Czar Nicholas, even though the man died when Pollard was nine. He was known to boost moral to the bug boys (Jockey slang for apprentice) One day while riding a horse, its name is long forgotten, in a morning excersize another horse running nearby kicked up something like a rock, or a dirt clod which hit Red in the head, injuring the part of the brain that controlled sight. Pollard found himself blind in his right eye. He kept this a secret until after he retired. Had the stewards known about his injury, they would have banned him from racing, perminantly; His good life eventually came to an end and horse racing was outlawed in Mexico, along with other gambling activities, this was around the same time racing became legalized in the United States. Pollard returned to the country. A horse trainer named Russ McGirr saw a talent in Pollard in 1927. The jockey worked best on troubled horses. Horses that reared, spooked, kicked, bit, among other things, Red avoided using the stick, treated the animals well, and kept a gentle hand as he guided them down the homestretch. This talent would help him reach his greatest success. |
Near Detroit, Pollard and his agent, a man named Yummy, got in a car accident that left them stranded with nothing but 27 cents and a pint of rank Whiskey they called "Bow-wow-wine". Sticking up their thumbs they soon found themself on the backstretch of a Detroit racetrack. There Red met trainer Tom Smith and his new prospect horse, Seabiscuit. Seabiscuit was bad tempered, small, with odd knees, he always finished last but Smith believed in the little horse. Red offered a sugar cube to the Biscuit, who he eventually nicknamed "Pops", and it was set. Tom Smith had himself a jockey.
|
That was the year the Biscuit found his legs. With good treatment, good stablemates, including a Spider Monkey, and a big horse named Pumpkin, and Red, he tore up the tracks. Soon enough a great Match Race was suggested between the West's little Seabiscuit, and the East's big, black Derby Winning, War Admiral. Red was ready to race, but it ended there.
He was riding a filly named Fair Knightess, also trained by Smith, when he ran into a pile-up on the track. Both horse and rider were nearly crushed. The filly's back was hurt and could possibly leave her paralyzed. Red fared a little better, but not much. His leg was shattered and the doctors, and his friends told him he wouldn't be able to ride in the match race against War Admiral set on November 1, 1938. Instead, Red's good friend George Woolf took the reins and rode Seabiscuit to victory. Many thought Red would never race again after his leg injury but they were wrong. He thought himself to walk again, though the doctors said he could never get on a horse. Seabiscuit had also suffered an injury to his leg, a pulled tendon, which is a serious injury among racing Thoroughbreds. The injured jockey and horse were reunited and soon, with help, Red was back in the saddle. Taking Pops for slow walks and building up to the canter then the gallop. It was time to run again. Tom Smith didn't want Red to ride and offered the saddle to George Woolf. This ended the two jockeys' friendship. Pollard created a makeshift leg brace which set the bone tight while he rode. After a doctor looked it over, he decided that Red could race, but if he fell again, it was possible Red would never walk. Risks have to be taken in the racing world. |
They'd been there before. The Santa Anita Handicap, a race Seabiscuit could have won once but was taken over by a colt named Rosemont who sneaked up on the jockey on the side of his bad eye. Now they had their chance again in 1940. It was a close race but Seabiscuit came out on top. It was Seabiscuit's last race and he became the top earning horse of all time until Curlin in 2008.
Though Seabiscuit had run his last race, Red hadn't. Over the next fifteen years his body wore down, and he fell from the top of the world, back to the bottom where he'd started. Riding the little horses who have been forgotten, only sometimes sitting on a decent mount and rarely winning. Never again did he meet the likes of Seabiscuit. 1955 was when Red gave up riding for good, but he still stayed around the track, unable to get away from it. Working as a valet for other jockeys. |