By MEG MCCONAHEY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Seabiscuit, the iconic racehorse who came to symbolize the power of perseverance and the triumph of the underdog during the depths of the Depression, is once again a superstar.

More than half a century after he was buried on a ranch south of Willits, the mud-colored horse with the knobby knees who overcame public scorn to outrace champions, has been rediscovered.

The Seabiscuit phenomenon materialized with a best-selling book and continues to gain steam with a heavily promoted new movie, "Seabiscuit," starring "Spiderman's" Tobey McGuire as jockey Red Pollard that will have a pre-premiere in Willits on Saturday.

The public has renewed its fascination with a horse that Walter Winchell ranked with Franklin Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler as one of the top newsmakers of 1938 after he vanquished the Triple Crown winner War Admiral in a storied race at Baltimore's Pimlico track.

And pilgrims from all over the country are discovering the 5,000-acre Ridgewood Ranch. It was there, at the regally painted red and white stables of San Francisco automobile magnate Charles Howard, that "The Biscuit" spent his retirement lolling in the dirt, snoozing in the shade and studding "seven little biscuits."

Independent-minded Americans have always had a soft spot for the underdog. And the story of Seabiscuit taps into the great American mythology -- the loser who overcomes impossible odds and grinding defeat to become a winner. Seabiscuit, an offspring of the legendary Man of War, lost 17 straight races in 1935 before Howard saw the potential and assembled an unlikely team of trainer Tom Smith and Pollard, a down-on-his luck, poetry reading jockey.

Together they turned Seabiscuit into a champion who won 33 of 89 races. Most horses only run a third of the number of races as Seabiscuit, who is ranked No. 25 in the top 100 race horses of the 20th century.

Howard's great-granddaughter, Janice Howard, said the alchemy of the three men and a horse, prevailing at a time when the nation's spirits were at an ebb, is what made this particular story so profoundly moving to so many people, even today.

"I think the timing is appropriate because our country is a little bit worried now," said Howard, who lives near Placerville and will visit Ridgewood for the first time for next weekend's movie premiere. "The country is experiencing a lot of problems and people are unsure of the future."

"The Mighty Biscuit" won a $100,000 purse at the time of his final victory at the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap, surpassing the world money-making record. The feat was all the more remarkable because both he and Pollard were recovering from serious injuries and Pollard was blind in one eye, a disability he concealed.

Horse and jockey recovered together at Ridgewood Ranch.

"This is horse racing's equivalent of 'Rocky,' but Rocky with horseshoes," said Keith Chamblin, a spokesman for the National Thoroughbred Racing Association in Lexington, Ky.

New reason to visit

When Seabiscuit was lounging in retirement in the 1940s, thousands of people every year passed under the wooden "Ridgewood Ranch, Home of Seabiscuit" sign to catch a glimpse of the ungainly racehorse in a paddock ringed with bleachers.

Now they're coming again and the Seabiscuit revival is once again putting Willits on the tourist radar.

The town's old Noyo Theater will play host to a premiere of "Seabiscuit" on Saturday -- several days before the official Hollywood premiere of the film produced by Universal Pictures and Dreamworks.

In the film, Jeff Bridges plays Charles Howard, a bicycle mechanic who landed in San Francisco just before the 1906 earthquake with 21 cents in his pocket and built up a fortune convincing skeptics to trade in their horses for Buicks.

He bought Ridgewood in 1919 and became a respected community leader. He put up the capital to build the town a hospital in 1928 as a memorial to his 15-year-old son Frank, who was killed in a truck accident at Ridgewood, far distant from emergency care.

It's fitting, town leaders say, that the premiere is a benefit for the Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital Foundation. The hospital is now engaged in a capital campaign to replace the aging facility set on a knoll above Highway 101.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would have so much interest in this area, as beautiful and as wonderful as I think it is. It was almost instantaneous to the point it's a little unnerving," said Lynn Kennelly, executive director of the Willits Chamber of Commerce. "It's not going to go on ad infinitum, but it sure has been fun."

Some 1,500 fans so far have taken one of the limited walking tours of the ranch, which has been owned by the religious community Christ's Church of the Golden Rule since 1962.

The chamber and the Willits Museum have collaborated with the 35 church members who still work and manage the ranch, to accommodate the public. Church women greet guests with chilled cider and "Seabiscuit" gingerbread cookies.

Ranch representative Tracy Livingston has spent years digging up memorabilia, much of which he's donated to the Mendocino County Museum in Willits. Some of the artifacts include the old Ridgewood sign, found by a logger in tall grass, and a tombstone for a Seabiscuit progeny, "Wee Biscuit," that had been lost under a pile of rubble.

The bearded Livingston affably leads tours and, whenever possible, patiently accommodates the acolytes who find their way on their own, taking an unmarked turn off Highway 101 down a windy road to view the timeworn remnants of what was one of the finest stables of its day.

Many more expected

The Mendocino Land Trust is working with the church to raise $6 million to buy a conservation easement to protect the property from development and provide for more public access. And Willits Rotarians have been rolling up their sleeves every Saturday to help the ranch restore Seabiscuit's old stud barn.

With millions more people expected to fall under the Seabiscuit spell through the upcoming movie, both Ridgewood and Willits leaders are bracing for an onslaught of even more attention.

City Hall last year estimated that the Seabiscuit ranch tours poured $100,000 into the town's struggling economy.

Kennelly said ever since Laura Hillendbrand's "Seabiscuit" hit the New York Times bestseller list early last year, the chamber has been besieged by calls from people clamoring for more information about Ridgewood. When they get to talking about Seabiscuit, they're frequently overcome by emotion.

"It's gotten to the point where for some people it's hallowed ground. You'll be talking to people and all of a sudden there doesn't seem to be anybody on the other end of the phone. They'll say in a tight voice 'Excuse me. I just have to compose myself.'"

Many visitors approach the Howard stables at Ridgewood, still bearing the peeling red and white paint, the custom cast iron jockey weather vanes and the inverted triangular "H" logo, with an almost reverential awe. At a cattle-weighing station they can see the number 1260 -- Seabiscuit's portly weight when he was Howard's saddle horse -- scratched into the wood.

"We're actually in a building that Seabiscuit was in. Can you believe it?" Debbie Morine, a teacher from Clearlake Oaks, whispered to a companion as she entered Seabiscuit's old stall on a recent tour. It's the same kind of pinch-me, am-I-really-here excitement one expects to hear at the Eiffel Tower or the Acropolis.

"I just had to touch the stalls," she said. "To say I was in the same place as Seabiscuit."

A lasting mystery

Stewart Moyes, a former horse trainer and harness racer from Las Vegas, has made the trip to Ridgewood four times in the last couple of years. It's the story of Tom Smith, an old mustang breaker and Seabiscuit's taciturn trainer, who summoned an almost horse whisperer type of wisdom to turn the ungainly loser into a champion, that moved him the most.

"It's an almost spiritual thing," he said, struggling for words to describe the pull of the ranch, which sits in the shadow of the knobby Eagle Peak, is scored by five miles of steelhead creeks, still has a two acre stand of old growth redwood and is dotted with 2,250 acres of oak woodland. It is under one of those oaks that the Mighty Biscuit is reportedly buried.

United Press sportswriter Glen Stackhouse, who described Seabiscuit as the "little runt who made champions look like plow nags," reported in a Ukiah datelined obituary in 1947, that he was buried in front of Howard's "mansion-like" house at Ridgewood.

The lodge style house with craftsman detailing built in 1905 by earlier owner William Van Arsdale, still stands. From the bay window in his living room Howard had a direct view of his beloved horse's stall.

But only Howard family descendents and a handful of people who were living on the ranch when Seabiscuit died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the tender age of 14, know exactly where he is buried, and they safeguard the secret, adding to the legend.

Jani Burton, whose father oversaw the thoroughbred breeding operation for Howard and who was living on the ranch when the great horse died, also is circumspect about where Seabiscuit sleeps.

"When people ask, I just tell them his spirit fills the whole place."

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at 521-5204 or mmcconahey@pressdemocrat.com.