Man O’ War’s centenary rolls out a year of celebrations

Man O’ War, regarded as one of the two or three best racehorses in the history of the sport in North America, is being honoured by the Kentucky Horse Park with a year-long series of events in 2017 celebrating his 100th birthday anniversary.

The celebration started on 29 March, the date Man O’ War was foaled.

The scheduled Man O’ War events will include a legacy mural of the horse known as “Big Red” painted in downtown Lexington as well as special Man O’ War-themed tours of the region’s horse farms. At the International Museum of the Horse, the exhibit will showcase never- before-seen artefacts from Man O’ War’s racing career and his post-retirement fame. The title of the exhibit refers to a phrase uttered by his long-time groom Will Harbut, who cared for the horse during his retirement and thrilled fans who came to Kentucky to visit Man O’ War with stories of his greatness.

Man O’ War was a force to be reckoned with on the racetrack, and his popularity among fans of horse racing during the early 20th Century was just as impressive. Bred at Lexington, Kentucky at Nursery Farm by industry titan August Belmont II, the alreadyand aptly named Man O’ War was sold when Belmont dispersed all of his yearling breeding stock and joined the Army to fight in World War I. Purchased for $5,000 by Samuel Riddle, the chestnut son of Fair Play would make his first start for trainer Louis Feustel on 6 June 1919 at Belmont Park and subsequently put together two of the best back-to-back racing years in history.

In 10 races during his two-yearold season of 1919, Man O’ War posted nine wins, none coming by less than a length. His only loss as a juvenile – and for his career – came in the Sanford Stakes at Saratoga, when he started slowly, was hemmed in traffic, and could not make up enough ground to defeat Upset, whose unexpected 0.50 win helped to popularize – but, contrary to legend, did not introduce – the use of “upset” in sports parlance.

Man O’ War was even better at age three, winning all 11 of his starts, this time none coming by less than 1.5 lengths. Despite carrying high weight assignments in many of his starts that year, he set track, US or world records in eight of them. Man O’ War won the Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes, Dwyer Stakes, Travers Stakes, and Jockey Club Gold Cup among other highlights before resoundingly defeating 1919 Triple Crown winner Sir Barton by seven lengths in the Kenilworth Park Gold Cup match race. That was his final career start on 12 October 1920, and Man O’ War retired with a record of 20 wins and one second from 21 races and the crown as horse racing’s all-time earnings leader with $249,965.

Standing primarily at Faraway Farm in Kentucky, Man O’ War would have a career at stud that did not quite reach his nonpareil standard of excellence on the track, but was accomplished nonetheless.

“I think Man O’ War was the most important racehorse of the 20th Century; he was voted No. 1 in a poll conducted by BloodHorse,” said Ed Bowen, racing historian, author of the Man O’ War volume in the Thoroughbred Legends series and a former editor-in-chief of BloodHorse. “It is impossible to compare horses from one era to the next, but I think Secretariat probably is the horse most commonly regarded as his key challenger. Newspapers and radio were the sources of most of the population’s relationship with Man O’ War, since only a small percentage actually got to see him in person. Still, when he took the train to Kentucky to retire at stud, throngs turned out at his every stop. During his career at stud, Man O’ War was a key to tourism in Kentucky. Even today, I would venture the guess that a large segment of the public would know you were talking about a racehorse if you mentioned Man O’ War.” - americasbestracing.net