Now... What Can We Learn From a Horse?: The Race of the Century

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Authors: Rajiv Fernando,
Faculty Associate,
ICMR (IBS Center for Management Research).

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So. what Can We Learn From A Horse?
The intertwined lives of this horse (who was too small), his jockey (who was too big), his trainer (who was too old) and his owner (too dumb to know the difference) have been truly inspiring and insightful as far as our approach to life's roller coaster ride is concerned. Courage, faith, grit, determination, perseverance, hard work, teaming, entrepreneurship, marketing / branding, coaching/mentoring and most important of all, that of keeping a sense of self-belief and positive attitude through life's twists and turns are a few themes which reverberate in your mind and heart as you read the book or watch the movie.

It's not in the Feet, it's in the Heart.
Seabiscuit had an unusual name for a racehorse which was very passive and did not evoke awe such as the other great racehorses of the earlier generation like Exterminator or Man o' War. His small size and crooked leg did little to impress his earlier trainer. But on the race track it was clear that this little horse had a fierce heart and always relished a fight. Many assignments or deals are lost due to the lack of spirit to overcome obstacles that seem insurmountable. Woolf once said, "You could kill him (Seabiscuit) before he'd quit."

Mentoring / Coaching
'Silent' Tom was an eccentric and vagabond horseman. He had an unusual working style and used unconventional methods to deal with horses. He played a key role in molding Seabiscuit from an unmanageable horse into a great champion. Tom Smith was the first to see the potential in Seabiscuit. He did not let the limp distract him or the short stature of the horse form a bias in his mind. He was looking for a horse that would not back away from a fight. A good trainer/coach /mentor can make a huge difference in building successful employees, achievers or just becoming better persons.

Different Strategies for Different Situations
The match race at Pimlico was won largely due to the retraining given to Seabiscuit just weeks before the match race. Seabiscuit's natural style was to start slow and then stalk the race leaders. But War Admiral was a speed demon that had explosive starts that knocked the wind out of the rivals from the very beginning of the race. Tom knew that if War Admiral got off to his trademark start and into the lead, Seabiscuit would have little chance of catching up. So he re-trained the horse to get used to the starting bell and break fast into the lead.

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