Man O' War vs. Sir Barton

For racers of every variety

Man O' War was a racehorse back in 1919 and 1920. He was an incredible athlete, even with 80 years of racehorses after him he is still called the Horse of the Century (some may contend that Secretariat earned that honor, but that is arguable for many reasons. For example, if you are looking at greatness as something that should also impact further generations of racehorses: after Secretariat's race career ended he was not very successful at stud, relative to Man O' War who sired many champions, including 1937 Triple Crown winner War Admiral). Growing up as a horse-crazy kid, I always loved Man O' War and one time when we were in Kentucky I made my mom take me to his grave at Churchill Downs, but anyway I am reminded of his story because I just read a very good biography of him.

So, the video... in 1920, Man O' War was pitted against the other most successful racehorse at the time, a colt named Sir Barton who was a year older. Because of this age difference, the two horses had never raced against each other in a regular race, so there were many who were eager to see a match-up and there was a lot of prize money to lure the owners. Apparently this was the first horse race that had videographers. There were 12 stationed around the track, which was Kenilworth Park up in Canada. This is a clip that I found on YouTube.

Here's an explanation of what you see: There was lots of betting - security was actually incredibly tight at the track to try to keep the race as fair and as separate from gambling-induced foul play as possible. I think it was the previous year that the whole White Sox team got caught for taking money to lose the World Series, so you can see that the environment around sports was a bit unsavory. Jockeys were often offered money to ride a bad race so that someone's bet could pay off greatly. The tight security worked, however, and the race was a fair one. Then the bit before the race: Man O' War's jockey has stripes on the arms of his silks, and Sir Barton's has stripes on the torso part of the silks. So when the horses are walking, you mostly see Sir Barton, who was a smaller horse. Then when it cuts to the race, you are seeing them in the last two turns, this is when Man O' War pulls away from Sir Barton like he was standing still. Then you see him crossing the finish line alone, his jockey already pulling him up because Sir Barton is far behind (the light makes it look like the jockey's arms are white but actually the silks are striped, it's just not a good picture). This was Man O' War's last race, because the hard track aggravated a mild injury in one of his legs and the risk of further damage was too great. As last year's Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro recently showed, once a horse breaks a leg bone, even a big strong racehorse, the horse often does not survive.

Interestingly, Sir Barton is widely considered to be a horse who was a doper. Not by his own choice of course. Back then, it was sadly common for trainers to run their horses on "hop" (mixtures of various amphetamines, including cocaine and heroin, whatever seemed to work for the horse) to get them excited and going. Sir Barton was a sullen horse who trained sluggishly but raced well. Man O' War was not run on hop - he was a very strong and temperamental horse naturally and his owners and trainer were staunchly against it.

But, looking at current-day athletes (e.g. cyclists!), isn't that what they always say?

OK I will stop rambling. Let me know if you want to know more about Man O' War or other horses, or if you want to borrow the book, which was very well researched and an interesting view into both racing and other aspects of life in the U.S. at that time.

P.S. Here is a photo of him winning the Stuyvesant Handicap early in his 3-year old year:


P.P.S. I forgot to mention that Sir Barton was the first ever Triple Crown winner - he won the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes in 1919. Those three races weren't called the Triple Crown until years later, but he was the first horse to win all 3.