Goofs for
Seabiscuit (2003) More at IMDbPro »

• Anachronisms: In the paddock scenes, the bronze statue of Seabiscuit is clearly visible.
  
  
• Factual errors: At Pimlico racetrack, the Maryland flag is upside down. The Calvert family seal (gold and black) should be at the top of the pole.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The "wild" mustangs that Tom Smith is chasing at the beginning of the movie are shod.
  
  

• Anachronisms: In the montage of still photographs purporting to show the first year of the Great Depression, a truck is visible with a 1937 license plate.
  
  
• Continuity: Seabiscuit continually changes from a light honey bay to a dark reddish bay. He also grows and shrinks throughout the film, and his mane switches sides. A horse's mane falls to one side or the other, it doesn't change from side to side.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When they allow Red to ride Seabiscuit into a field to "teach him to be a horse again", Howard's car has a modern "antique auto" license plate.
  
  
• Continuity: Before the final (Santa Anita) race, Red Pollard laces his leg brace in the front of his shin. During the race, the brace is laced on the outside of his calf.
  
  
• Factual errors: Red's father calls his wife Agnes. Red's mother's name was actually Edith. Red's future wife (who we do not meet in the film) is named Agnes.
  
  
• Factual errors: War Admiral is repeatedly referred to as being 18 hands vs. Seabiscuit's 15 hands. The horses were actually the same height, with some sources listing Seabiscuit as the heavier of the two.
  
  
• Factual errors: The United States Flag at the Pimlico racetrack has 50 stars. In the 1930s, the United States only had 48 states.
  
  
• Continuity: In the third race, when Tick-Tock beats Crow Segment and they sell out the infield, Seabiscuit's number is 4, except for one quick segment as they parade to the track. Then, Seabiscuit's number is 5.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: Late in the film, as Charles Howard worries in the bleachers about letting Red ride in the race, his wife Marcella plays with the marble game. She keeps talking in the next shot, but her lips (at the top of frame) don't move as the audio finishes.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Towards the end of the movie, after Seabiscuit has won the race at the Pimlico racetrack, a lit electronic scoreboard can be seen in the background. Electronic scoreboards didn't exist in the 1930s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During races at Santa Anita Park, a turf course is inside the dirt course. Santa Anita's turf course was built in 1953.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In one of his voiceovers, Tick-Tock says, "The Iceman Cometh." The phrase itself comes from the Eugene O'Neill play of the same title, which wasn't produced theatrically until 1946 and refers to George Woolf who was called "The Iceman". Though the phrase "The Iceman Cometh" isn't historically accurate it is likely a reference to 'Jeff Bridge''s role in the 1973 movie version of the O'Neill play.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The jockeys all wear clear plastic safety lenses, which weren't used until after World War II.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The jockeys have chin straps holding their hats on. Jockeys' hats didn't have chin straps until the Caliente Safety Helmet was introduced in 1956.
  
  
• Factual errors: The car radio plays music as soon as it's turned on. In the 1930s, all radios had vacuum tubes, which had to warm up for 10 to 15 seconds.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Red exercises a friend's horse, and the horse bolts, you can see a blue jacket on the other side of the bush that the horse is falling over.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The bullring in Tijuana has a modern-day Telmex (Mexican phone company) logo.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During Seabiscuit's last race he's at the back of the pack racing against a dozen horses, but the groomed racetrack only shows three sets of horse tracks.
  
  
• Continuity: Flipped shot: After the match race with War Admiral, there is a shot of the train returning west. The numbers on the train are backwards.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the credits, a layout of a newspaper page is shown. The story type is reversed, but the title "MATCH RACE" is not.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The scenes at Pimlico and Santa Anita Racecourses show ovals equipped with the modern Fontana Safety rail, which is very wide at the top. These rails were not adopted in the US until the late 1980s. In the 1930s, the rails were narrow.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Red and Seabiscuit are recuperating, Red asks the track guy to mow around a tree to make a sort of track. The track guy brings out is a push mower. The grass he is cutting is higher than the blades. A push mower won't cut grass that high, it will just push over it.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When the four principals attend a newsreel theatre, the on-screen announcer says that Seabiscuit is "the biggest thing on four legs since Hope and Crosby." The scene is set well before the 1 November 1938 Pimlico race, but Road to Singapore (1940), Bob Hope's first film with Bing Crosby, was released in March 1940.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: While Red is exercising a horse for his former boss, the "hand start" John Deere tractor makes a sound like an electric starter.
  
  
• Continuity: After a scene that takes place circa 1930, a subtitle reads "six years later." In the next scene, which takes place in Tijuana, the subtitles read "1933."
  
  
• Continuity: During the runaway scene, the horse's reins change from brown braided leather reins to black rubber reins.
  
  
• Continuity: When Red is racing with George, George says, "There's my hole; gotta go." In the replay, he says, "There's my hole; gotta fly."
  
  
• Factual errors: "Six-month-old" Seabiscuit is played by a much younger foal.
  
  
• Anachronisms: All-female mariachi groups did not exist until the 1970s. In the 1930s and '40s, women were usually featured singers, rarely played an instrument, and never wore the male riding suit.
  
  
• Factual errors: During Seabiscuit's Santa Anita Handicap win, he is running dead last early in the race. The charts for the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap show Seabiscuit running no worse than fourth at any point during the race. In fact, he was in perfect striking position around the first turn and down the backstretch.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Union Station in Los Angeles is shown as the location where Charles Howard started the campaign to get a match race with War Admiral in 1938. However, the station did not open until 1939.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: When Red's horse is dragging him, before he fractures his leg, Red's left foot is caught in the right stirrup. That could only happen if he was riding backwards.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: In one scene, the trainer is consulting with the jockey in the jockeys' room. During the races, only jockeys are allowed in the jockeys' room
  
  
• Anachronisms: Before Seabiscuit and Red's first race, when Seabiscuit is being loaded into the starting gate, you can see the Santa Anita racetrack sign in the background, with a digital scoreboard. Digital scoreboards were first manufactured in the 1980's.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During an early scene showing Prohibition, the car pictured is a 1936 GM model. However, Prohibition ended in the U.S. in 1933.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Throughout the movie, various characters are using modern (precision adjustable-power) binoculars with plastic casing.
  
  

• Anachronisms: SPOILER: When the little boy is buried, the lowering device for the casket is modern (post-1980s).
  
  

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