Editing Red Pollard (section)

==Career==
Red Pollard stood {{cvt|5|ft|7|in}} and weighed {{cvt|115|lb}}, which is considered big for a jockey.<ref name= ESPN30828>{{cite web| url = https://www.espn.com/page2/s/merron/030828.html| title = ESPN.com - Page2 - How real is the reel Seabiscuit?}}</ref> In 1933, Pollard rode in [[Ontario]] at the [[Fort Erie Racetrack|Fort Erie]] racetrack. Early in his career, he lost the vision in his right eye due to a [[traumatic brain injury]]. This injury occurred when he was hit in the head by a rock thrown up by another horse during a training ride. Because he would not have been allowed to ride had the full extent of his injury been known, he kept his vision loss a secret for the rest of his riding career.<ref name=PBS>{{cite web|title= Biography: Red Pollard|url= https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/biography/seabiscuit-biography-red-pollard/|work=Seabiscuit . American Experience |publisher= WGBH, PBS|access-date= November 13, 2012| year=2003}}</ref>

Down and out in [[Detroit]] in 1936, Pollard was hired by [[horse trainer]] [[R. Thomas Smith|Tom Smith]] to ride [[Charles S. Howard]]'s Seabiscuit.<ref name=PBS/> The team's first stakes win came in the 1936 Governor's Handicap. Pollard and Seabiscuit won numerous important races, including the 1937 [[Brooklyn Handicap]] at [[Aqueduct Racetrack|Old Aqueduct Racetrack]] in [[New York City]], the 1937 [[Massachusetts Handicap]] at [[Suffolk Downs]] in [[Boston]], and famously lost by a nose at the 1937 [[Santa Anita Handicap]]. Pollard and Seabiscuit were considered by most as the best pairing of race horse and jockey in the US at that time. In 1940, Pollard jockeyed the then 7-year-old Seabiscuit to a win in the Santa Anita Handicap at [[Santa Anita Park]] in [[Arcadia, California]]. It was Seabiscuit's last race. Pollard rode Seabiscuit 30 times with 18 wins - all of them stakes or handicaps.

Following the 1940 season, Pollard bought a house in [[Pawtucket, Rhode Island]].  Pollard continued to ride into the 1950s, mostly in [[New England]]. Eventually, he became a [[Valet#Other valets|jockey's valet]] at [[Narragansett Park]] in Rhode Island.<ref>{{cite book | author-link= Laura Hillenbrand| last = Hillenbrand | first= Laura | year= 2001 | title= Seabiscuit: An American Legend| isbn = 9780449005613 | url= https://archive.org/details/seabiscuitameric00hill| url-access= registration}}</ref>