The Derby

George Woolf — "The Iceman," so called for his composure in a tight finish, and the jockey who rode Seabiscuit past War Admiral in their 1938 match race — bought the Derby restaurant at 233 East Huntington Drive in Arcadia that same year, a short walk from Santa Anita. Eight years later he was thrown from his mount during a race at Santa Anita and died of his injuries, aged thirty-five. He had kept living quarters above the restaurant, and staff say he never entirely gave them up: footsteps are heard climbing the stairs toward the rooms he used, and employees describe his presence through the building, protective rather than unsettling. The Derby still operates, and Woolf's racing memorabilia remains on the walls.