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On March 29, 1917 a chestnut colt was born to the mare Mahubah who would become the yardstick against whom all other racehorses for generations would be measured against. This colt’s name was Man o’ War.
Man o’ War’s sire Fair Play was an excellent stud and had a better than average racing record. Both the sire and dam were owned by Major August Belmont and kept at Belmont’s Nursery Stud Farm in Kentucky.
With thoughts of the World War going on, Mrs. Belmont is the one who supposedly came up with the name Man o’ War. As America’s involvement in the War began, the horseracing world’s activities were curtailed with entries decreasing in even the biggest name races. This decrease became especially apparent when only eight colts took the field in the 1918 Kentucky Derby. Fearing the war was going to continue indefinitely, Major Belmont decided to keep only his breeding stock and sell his entire crop of yearlings.
On Saturday, August 17, 1918 twenty-one yearlings from Nursery Stud Farm were put on the block at the Saratoga Yearling Sale. Man o’ War was one of these. In the audience was a new comer to the racing world, Mr. Samuel Riddle who took a liking to the big, chestnut colt and decided to buy him. With a winning bid of $5,000 and an idea that Man o’ War had the size to be a jumper if he didn’t pan out as a race horse, Mr. Riddle took him home and turned him over to his new trainer, Louis Feustel. A $5,000 horse that Mr. Riddle would be offered a blank check for by Louis Mayer only a few years later.
Starting his racing career as a two year old at Belmont Park, Man o’ War was ridden by Johnny Loftus. Entering the track as the race favorite he won by an easy margin. Three days later he again went to the post carrying 115 pounds in the Keene Memorial for a winners purse of $4,200 and once again left the field of horses far behind.
With these two wins behind him, the track handicappers began piling on the additional weight to try and even up the fields. They tried but to no avail.
In the Youthful stakes he carried 120 pounds and two days later he was in the Hudson Stakes with unheard of weight for a two year old of 130 pounds, a weight no other two year old in history had ever carried.
By this time stables were hesitant about sending their horses to the post against him. In the Tremont Stakes only two other stable would have entries even though Man o’ War would be carrying 130 pounds to their meager 115.
Consistently starting as the favorite and carrying 130 pounds Man o’ War would remain undefeated until the Stanford Memorial on August 13, 1919 when a bad start as well as being boxed in during the race had Man o’ War finish a close second to the aptly named Upset. This one race would be his only defeat and years later Willy Knapp, Upset’s jockey would say he wished he had gone ahead and moved over during the race. That a horse as great as Man o’ War deserved an undefeated career.
During his next race, the Grand Union Hotel Stakes Man o’ War would carry his routine 130 pounds but because of his win, Upset would be boosted from 115 to 125 pounds. The race itself was six furlongs and Man o’ War left Upset and the rest of the field far behind to set a new race record.
Due to a personal dislike of young three year olds running the Kentucky Derby’s mile and a quarter distance that early in the year, Mr. Riddle didn’t enter Man o’ War into the 1920 running of that famous race. He did enter the other two of the Triple Crown events, the Preakness and the Belmont.
Due to problems between Johnny Loftus and the Jockey Club, Loftus would not ride Man o’ War during his three year old career. In the Preakness, Clarence Krummer would be in the saddle and ride the great horse to the first of his three-year-old easy victories. In the Lawrence Realization Man o’War would win by an unbelievable 100 lengths. As he had as a two year old, Man o’ War would again be called upon to carry weights (138 pounds) no other horse his age had ever been made to carry.
As a three year old Man o’ War started and won eleven times. Eight of these wins would set new records. Many of these records would remain untouched until Secretariat in the early 1970s. At Kenilworth Park in 1920 Man o’ War also faced Sir Barton, the first Triple Crown winner in history in a special match race. As with the rest of his races, Man o’ War won this race with relative ease.
Knowing the handicappers would continue to add weight until breaking him, Mr. Riddle decided to retire Man o’ War at the end of his three year old career. During this career, he earned another record for his time, a lifetime earnings of $249,465.
As a stud Man o’ War would sire 64 stakes winners and become the leading sire of 1926. His offspring included champions Scap Flow, Battleship, Crusader, American Flag, Maid at Arms, Bateau, Florence Nightingale and the Triple Crown winner War Admiral. He was also the sire of the Maryland Hunt Cup winner Blockade and champion show jumper Holystone.
Man o’ War died at Mr. Riddle’s Faraway Farm in 1947 while still in the care of his groom Will Harbut, whose famous saying “He is de mostest hoss” will forever describe his equally famous charge.
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