BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) A battered kangaroo leather saddle trimmed in lizard skin worn by Seabiscuit more than half a century ago was bought 2½ hours after it failed to meet its reserve price at auction Sunday.
The buyer from Virginia requested anonymity, said James M. Goodman, who brought the collection of racing memorabilia to the attention of the I.M. Chait Gallery.
The saddle was the centerpiece of the 372 lots on the auction block. It was first worn by Australian racing great Phar Lap, whose jockey Billy Elliott later gave it to jockey George Woolf. He considered it his lucky saddle and wore it while riding Seabiscuit.
Bidding on the saddle during the 4½-hour auction ended at $125,000, which was less than the $150,000 to $250,000 estimate the gallery had put on it. Goodman declined to disclose the reserve, although he said the buyer paid "within a reasonable margin of the minimum."
There was great interest in the saddle from Australia, where Phar Lap is regarded as a national hero.
The eventual buyer, who purchased other items, contacted gallery officials after the sale to make the deal.
"They were pleased to have it," Goodman said.
Laura Hillenbrand, who wrote the best-selling book "Seabiscuit," bought several items, including paying $13,000 in a telephone bid for a shoe worn by Seabiscuit when he defeated War Admiral in their match race.
The riding boots used by Woolf went for $6,500 and his whip was sold for $5,250. Both went to Internet bidders.
The heaviest bidding was on items connected to Seabiscuit, Woolf and the horse's owner, Charles Howard.
For years, the items were on display at The Derby - a suburban Los Angeles restaurant not far from Santa Anita, where Seabiscuit raced in the 1930s and '40s. Woolf owned the restaurant.
They have taken on new significance with the success of Hillenbrand's book. A movie based on the book and starring Jeff Bridges, Tobey Maguire and Oscar winner Chris Cooper opens nationwide Friday.
A plaster statuette of Woolf wearing Howard's silks and holding the famous saddle was sold for $5,000 to an Internet bidder. It resembles an early version of the bobblehead dolls that are currently popular giveaways at sporting events.
A set of nine souvenir glasses dating to the 1930s and '40s and featuring Seabiscuit and his original jockey, Red Pollard, went for $950 after spirited bidding by two individuals in the auction house. Four sterling silver cups from Santa Anita engraved with the names of Seabiscuit, Swaps, Round Table and Noor were sold for $2,600.
A vintage portrait of Seabiscuit sold for $2,500; a telephone bidder paid $1,000 for the red cap and tattered silk shirt worn by Woolf in races; another set of Woolf's silks went for $1,700; and a third set of his silks sold for $1,100.
The white cap and britches worn by Woolf in the race in which he was killed at Santa Anita in 1946 sold for $1,500 to an Internet bidder.
Louis Reinwand of Provo, Utah, successfully bid on several items, including $1,000 for a brass cash register that belonged to Woolf. Reinwand's late grandmother, Alice, was Woolf's sister.
"I've been collecting 30 years," said Reinwand, who is compiling a book on Woolf. "We were just trying to fill some gaps."
A large vintage photograph of "Seabiscuit with his first little biscuits" went for $4,000. Whips used by Woolf sold for $2,600 and $1,800.
An absentee bidder paid $9,000 for a panoramic photograph of Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby day in the 1930s. A racing program from Santa Anita dated March 2, 1940, the day Seabiscuit won the Santa Anita Handicap, sold for $3,900.
A signed black and white photograph of Woolf riding Seabiscuit and signed by Howard sold for $7,750. Three Christmas cards sent in 1938 and '39 by Howard and his wife sold for $3,800.
