Family history research leads father and son to Kaufman County kaufmanherald.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kaufmanherald.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Seabiscuit was not an impressive-looking horse. He was considered quite lazy, preferring to eat and sleep in his stall rather than exercise. He’d been written off by most of the racing industry after losing his first 17 races. But Seabiscuit eventually became one of the most beloved thoroughbred champions of all time – voted 1938 Horse of the Year after winning his legendary match race as an underdog against Triple Crown winner War Admiral in 1938.
As a molecular physiologist, the concept of understanding how specific gene variants can affect performance, whether in athletics, learning or even how an organism develops, has always intrigued me. Thoroughbred racing seemed a promising arena to study this idea, since successful racehorses need not only elite physical attributes, but also the mental makeup of a champion, sometimes referred to as the “will to win.”
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Paying homage: The hooves of the great Seabiscuit were preserved for all time by being turned into ashtrays â becoming a glamorous fashion statement and conversation piece
There was a time when the greatest tribute owners could pay to their favourite racehorses was to preserve their hooves - and sometimes other parts of their anatomy - as cherished mementoes, often displayed around their homes. Carly Silver reports.
One chilly afternoon in November 2018, I entered a basement storage room at the Keeneland Library in Lexington, Kentucky. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a gleam of silver. Gently lifting a pile of stacked papers, I found buried treasure beneath: two hooves, outer walls plated in thick silver.