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A fixture at Del Mar during those early days, Crosby could often be found astride a horse riding the grounds or hanging out trackside smoking his pipe. Breaking from the gate, Seabiscuit came out first and was ahead of Ligaroti by a length at the first turn but the game Argentine Thoroughbred immediately rallied and drew within a head of The Biscuit all the way around the track and into the clubhouse turn. At the stretch, Woolf and Richardson went to war!
“That was as rough a race as I’ve ever seen in my whole life,” track announcer Oscar Otis remembered later. “They were hitting themselves over the head with their whips and Richardson had Woolf in a leg lock. ‘Never seen so much trouble in one race and there was a hell of a stink about it.” Seabiscuit won by a nose and broke the track record by four seconds Later that year, Ligaroti won the Del Mar Handicap while Seabiscuit upset War Admiral in the greatest match race of all time at Pimlico. Crosby’s horse was retired to stud where Ligorati was a dismal failure, but the horse had heart- as much heart at breeding as he did running races for the crooner and founder of Del Mar, Bing Crosby. In one great final effort the horse that almost beat Seabiscuit collapsed and died while covering a mare. Yet the breeding took.
Crosby named the foal, “Last Bang.”
South American import Ligaroti went head-to-head with the legendary Seabiscuit during a highly publicised 1938 Match Race at Del Mar. www.horsebackmagazine.com
www.horsebackmagazine.com
November November 2012 2012 -- HORSEBACK ORSEBACK MAGAZINE AGAZINE
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