LOS ANGELES -- Laura Hillenbrand, who wrote last year's best-selling book "Seabiscuit," spent at least $17,900 on items related to the Depression-era horse at a weekend auction.

Hillenbrand's biggest purchase was $13,000 for a shoe worn by Seabiscuit in his match race with War Admiral in 1938. The shoe is mounted on a sterling silver ashtray.

The race is a focal point of the movie "Seabiscuit," which is based on Hillenbrand's book. It stars Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges and Chris Cooper and opens Friday.

Bidding by telephone, Hillenbrand bought at least five of the 372 lots of thoroughbred racing memorabilia auctioned at I.M. Chait Gallery in Beverly Hills.

The centerpiece of the auction was a battered kangaroo leather saddle trimmed in lizard skin worn by Seabiscuit and Australian racing great Phar Lap more than half a century ago.

It sold after the auction ended to a buyer from Virginia who requested anonymity, said James M. Goodman, an associate of the gallery.

Goodman declined to disclose the saddle's reserve, although the gallery had put an estimate of $150,000 to $250,000 on it.

The auction lots totaled more than $188,000, including the gallery's 17.5 percent commission. The total does not include the saddle's price, Goodman said Monday.

"This having been the first major sale of racing memorabilia, we're very pleased with the outcome," he said. "There were some prices realized that we were surprised by."

Hillenbrand paid $2,600 for a riding crop that was a gift to George Woolf, who sometimes rode Seabiscuit in place of Red Pollard, his oft-injured regular jockey.

She spent $2,300 on three scrapbooks of newspaper articles chronicling Woolf's career that were compiled by his family.

The riding boots used by jockey George Woolf went for $6,500 and his whip was sold for $5,250. Both went to Internet bidders.

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. A whips used by Woolf sold for $2,600.

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.

Fifty-five lots were passed because they failed to attract minimum bids. Those lots, mostly photos and items unrelated to Seabiscuit, are still available.

The items came from The Derby -- a suburban Los Angeles restaurant not far from Santa Anita, where Seabiscuit raced in the 1930s and '40s. Woolf owned the restaurant. Its current owners auctioned the items to pare down their extensive collection.