Man o' War: The Horse of the Century

A Summary of His Life and Achievements and His Pre-eminence among the Horses of the World

O'NEIL SEVIER

IT would be impossible, perhaps, to find an Englishman who would agree that there ever could be a greater thoroughbred than was Ormonde, Great Britain's "horse of the century" of some twenty-five years back. And there are British sportsmen of the living generation who would balk at an admission that an American horse could ever be so good as was Gay Crusader, the winner in 1917 of the "triple crown" of British racing (i. e., the Two Thousand Guineas, the Derby and the St. Leger), and the son of another racer of the highest merit,—Bayardo, no less.

The suggestion that any horse could be bred anywhere that sane folk would consider comparable with Sardanapale, the continental thoroughbred hero of the year of the beginning of the great war, would shock a Frenchman to his marrow. Nor would it be easy to make an Australian admit that there could be a peer to Musket—which raced more than a quarter of a century ago at P'lemington and Sandwick and founded the line that has given Spion Kop, this year's British Derby winner, to Great Britain, and Johren, a three-year-old crack of a couple of seasons back, to the United States, —nor could an Argentino be persuaded to believe in a rival to Botofago of the Buenos Aires course. Englishmen would be particularly reluctant to admit that a world's champion could be bred in America that was not eligible by ancestry for registration in their cherished stud book.

Man o' War, because of a drop or two of the blood of Lexington, is not eligible for registration in the British stud book, though Lexington was the greatest American horse of his age and though his blood has exerted the most profound influence for good in the subsequent upbuilding of the American thoroughbred family.

Nevertheless, Americans of all professions and vocations and all shades of political and religious faith, have acclaimed Man o' War, which finished with racing when he defeated Sir Barton on the 12th of October in a gallop of one mile and a quarter at Kenilworth Park, a race course just over the Canadian boundary from Detroit, thereby winning the record sum of $75,000 in cash and a $5,000 gold cup. And there is no American who has seen Man o' War race, or who is familiar with his performances, who does not stand ready to debate this question with any champion of Ormonde, or Gay Crusader, or Musket, or Sardanapale, or Botofago, at any time or at any place.

Major August Belmont, who bred Man o' War at his nursery stud in Kentucky, conceded reluctantly, after he had seen Man o' WTar win the Belmont stakes last June and establish a new world's record of 2:14 1 /5th for one mile and three furlongs, that this great leggy chestnut, which, when he is fully extended, clears twenty-five feet at every stride, might be a better horse than Tracery had been. It cost Major Belmont something to make such a concession. He naturally had, and has still, the highest regard for the son of Rock Sand and Topiary, which bore his silks in Great Britain in 1.913 with brilliant success, and like Man o' War, was a product of the nursery stud.

JOSEPH E. WIDENER and his trainer, Thomas Welsh, and John Sanford, men of conservative cast and given to the careful weighing of words, declared that Man o' War, right, would have beaten any horse they had seen race in either Great Britain or France in the course of a quarter of a century. A few days after the finish of the Belmont, Joseph L. Murphy, of Philadelphia, then the owner of Flittergold, an own brother of Fair Play, Man o' War's sire, offered Mr. Riddle $260,000 in cash for his horse. It was Mr. Murphy's intention, in the case of his securing the horse, to have exhibited him next season at the great fairs throughout the country and, after that, to have put him at stud ser-' vice. Another horseman, whose name Mr. Riddle declined to divulge, handed the proud and happy Philadelphia sportsman a signed check and told him he might fill it out to suit himself, if he would consent to part with Man o' War.

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Much water has passed under the bridge since Man o' War defeated Donnaconna in the Belmont. Man o' War has won other races and made records at other distances and Mr. Riddle has since turned down a specific offer of $400,000 for him.

A. M. Orpen, the genius of racing at Kenilworth Park, declared after he signed articles with Mr. Riddle and Commander J. K. L. Ross, of Montreal, for the appearance at the Windsor course of Man o' War and Sir Barton in the $75,000 special of October 12th, that he would have offered $100,000 or more, if there had been competitive bidding for the race. Mr. Orpen, undoubtedly, would have had to offer more than $75,000 and a $5,000 gold cup, if Colonel Matt Winn, the general manager of the Kentucky Jockey Club, had known in time that Mr. Riddle and Commander Ross were to meet at Havre de Grace in the last week of September to arrange a meeting between Man o' War and Sir Barton. But as it was, the purse for which Sir Barton and Man o' War raced at Kenilworth Park was the biggest purse ever hung up for a two-horse race anywhere, After the defeat of Sir Barton by Man o' War, Colonel Winn offered $50,000 for a race between the threeyear-old Whirlwind and Willis Sharpe Kilmer's Exterminator, the winner of one Kentucky Derby, one Latonia Cup, one Pimlico Cup, two Saratoga Cups and of the first Autumn Gold Cup (a race of two miles that was instituted at Belmont Park in September and is to be annually renewed hereafter), as well as the establisher of new American records for one mile and three-quarters and two miles. It was the desire of Colonel Winn to have Man o' War and Exterminator meet at either Latonia or Churchill Downs in October or November and gallop one mile and a half or farther. Mr. Kilmer was willing to race Exterminator. But Mr. Riddle had declared before the start of the race at Kenilworth Park that, after the finish, Man o' War should retire, whether he won or lost, to take up stud duty in Kentucky. It is because he is still determined to adhere to this resolution that Mr. Riddle has turned a deaf ear to the importunities of Commander Ross and other friends to send the horse to Great Britain next year to try his luck in the Ascot Gold Cup, a race of two miles, and the Jockey Club stakes, a race of one mile and three-quarters.