Seabiscuit Movie Stars a Realistic Equicizer

Regarding actor Tobey Maguire: Director Gary Ross was equally impressed with Maguire's commitment and hard work. "He was really, really in amazing shape," says Ross. "His body fat got down to something like six percent, which is borderline unnatural."

Actor Tobey Maguire up close on the Equicizer.

In addition to his workouts with Horrigan, Maguire trained with the film's race designer McCarron, who secured an "equicizer" for the jockey-in-training. (Used by professional jockeys to train, the mechanical racehorse would also come in handy for Ross and the filmmakers more below).

"We brought the equicizer over to Tobey's house," explains McCarron, "and I would go there about three times a week and work with him for about an hour-and-a-half per session. He caught on very quickly. He's a good study ...he's a great study, for that matter."

McCarron admits to a little satisfaction watching the young actor sweat while training to do something that many people think is no more difficult than riding a horse. "It was fun for me," he confesses, "to see the pain and discomfort in his face when he was first getting down in the crouched position that a jockey has to maintain."

Maguire worked hard learning how to keep the thigh-burning balance necessary for rider and horse to race as one. Riding a Thoroughbred horse is more than a skill; it is an art, a concert of two very different bodies, the immense and powerful horse thundering down the track and the slight, near-weightless jockey expertly guiding him to the finish line.

"You need to know where to place your hands," McCarron continues, "how to push on a horse's neck and get the most out of your upper body strength. You need to know how to stay perched on a horse's back so that you are in perfect unison with that horse."

Maguire's training paid off. "He just took to it immediately," says his director. "He has incredible balance, incredible form. I mean, the first tape that we saw we realized he was absolutely going to look like a jockey.

Regarding the Equicizer's other role: Even with all of the advanced technology at his disposal, Ross still wanted to bring the viewers even closer to the racing action. Several of the scenes involved jockeys holding discussions while in mid-race; one race in Agua Caliente, Tijuana called for a half-page of dialogue between jockeys. Also, the director needed to capture the jockeys' expressions, like when Red rides Seabiscuit for the first time. Even the use of the most accomplished rider would not enable Ross and his cinematographer to get the camera in for a close-up-not in a predictable enough way to be able to bank on getting the shot.

The answer to the problem came unexpectedly.

One day, while he was still writing the script, Ross came upon something called an equicizer while touring around the track with Chris McCarron.

Tobey Maguire and Gary Stevens preparing to film a scene.

"It was a funny-looking contraption that resembled a hobby horse," Ross recalls. "It was a mechanical horse that had springs, a weird wooden head and a carpet body."

McCarron explained that this was a device that simulated the experience of riding a racehorse, something he and other jockeys used during their morning workouts and for rehab. Ross started thinking. He then asked special effects supervisor Michael Lantieri and key grip Les Tomita to commission a vehicle for him. Lantieri and Tomita enlisted the services of NASCAR racer and insert car owner Allan Padelford, who actualized Ross' concept and built what came to be known affectionately as the S.S. Seabiscuit.

"It's a 12-foot by 20-foot rolling platform with steering in the rear and in the front," Lantieri explains. "It's built to the 16-and-one-half hands high spec so it would be level running alongside the horses. It's got a 454 Chevy engine built under the hood and it can travel around the track at 40 to 50 miles-per-hour."

In order to be able to closely capture two jockeys in action, Ross had two equicizers modified with realistic horse heads placed atop his newly created vehicle. The equicizers themselves were mounted onto tracks, enabling them to shift positions (one in the lead, now, the other) while the entire platform was being powered around the racetrack. All the while, the entire moving vehicle could be surrounded by the other horses in the race and Rossthrough the ingenious combination of several cutting-edge filming techniques with specially designed hardware and camera equipmentwas able to capture the smaller moments between two jockeys amidst the larger, frenetic world of Thoroughbreds and their riders in mid-race.

Equicizers loaded on the S.S. Seabiscuit.

The ingenious S.S. Seabiscuit became an invaluable tool that enabled the crew to execute a variety of shots, getting in as close as needed and in virtually any position required. Adam Somner offers, "One of the reasons we were able to accomplish what we did was because Gary was committed to maximizing his shots, which is why the S.S.
Seabiscuit was such a creative way to problem solve while actually improving what we were able to get. That's pure Gary."...click to read the entire production notes.

Seabiscuit the Movie