October 12, 1920: Man o' War vs. Sir Barton

Man o' War, with Johnny Loftus aboard

October 12, 1920: The 2 greatest racehorses of their era face each other, although it is not a match race. The same jockey had ridden each of them to their greatest achievements. The horse he chose for this race won.

Man o' War was foaled in 1917 near Lexington, Kentucky, on a farm owned by August Belmont Jr., financier, supplier of the money to build Belmont Park and the first part of the New York Subway system, and the son of the newspaper publisher who founded the Belmont Stakes. Foreshadowing? The foal's father, Fair Play, was a stakes winner who finished 2nd in the 1908 Belmont. His mother, Mahubah, was the daughter of Rock Sand, who won the English Triple Crown.

Shortly after the colt was foaled, August Belmont Jr., despite being 65 years old, volunteered for service in the U.S. Army in World War I. (He served as a quartermaster, playing to his strength. He survived the war, and lived until 1924.) So his wife, the English former stage actress Eleanor Robson, named the colt in honor of her husband: "Man o' War." (She was his much-younger 2nd wife, and lived until 1979, just short of her 100th birthday.) The Belmonts liquidated many of their assets due to the war, and sold Man o' War to Samuel D. Riddle, who had a stable in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Man o' War was tall, strong, and, like a later contender for the title of the greatest racehorse of the 20th Century, Secretariat, had a reddish coat that led to the nickname "Big Red." Trained by Louis Feustel, and ridden by Johnny Loftus, he first raced as a 2-year-old on June 6, 1919. He raced again on June 9, again on June 21, again on June 23, and again on July 5. That's 5 races in 29 days. He won all of them.

Traditionally, in New York State, Belmont Park and Aqueduct Race Course close for the Summer, and everybody goes Upstate to Saratoga Race Course. On August 13, he ran in the Sanford Memorial Stakes, at Saratoga. He got off to a bad start, and lost, by only a neck, to a horse carrying 15 fewer pounds.

The horse's name was Upset, and in the years to come, many people would come to believe that this race was the reason that an expected winner being defeated is called an "upset." In fact, the term had been used in horse racing as far back as 1877. A term that did result from this race is that Saratoga became known as The Graveyard of Champions.

Upset's jockey was Willie Knapp. He had done this before: In 1918, he won the Kentucky Derby aboard Exterminator, who was a 30-1 shot.

In all, Man o' War raced 9 times as a 2-year-old, winning 8 of them. That year, 1919, Sir Barton became the 1st horse to win the Triple Crown: Winning the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. Loftus had ridden Sir Barton, too, but called Man o' War the best horse he ever rode. The Triple Crown would not become a big deal until the 1930s.

Man o' War did not win the Triple Crown, because he did not even enter the Kentucky Derby. Riddle looked at the schedule, saw the Derby being raced on May 8 and the Preakness on May 18. He looked at the map, and saw that the Derby was in Louisville, and the Preakness was in much closer Baltimore. So he decided to save his horse for the Preakness. Man o' War did not race as a 3-year-old until that May 18, and won the Preakness. Just 11 days later, he won the Belmont Stakes.

He ran 2 races at Saratoga that Summer, the Miller Stakes and the Travers Stakes, and won both, with Upset among the defeated horses in the latter (but not entered in the former). His last race was on October 12, 1920, at Kenilworth Park in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, across the Detroit River from Detroit. Running against Sir Barton, with Loftus aboard Man o' War, this could have been a match race instead of in the Kenilworth Park Gold Cup. Instead, there were other horses in the race, and Man o' War beat the Triple Champion by 7 lengths.

He finished his career with 21 races, winning 20. Of those 20 wins, 4 included Upset among the defeated horses. He was retired to stud at Lexington, Kentucky. The Jockey Club credits him with 62 stakes winners from 381 named foals, including 1925 Belmont winner American Flag, 1929 Kentucky Derby winner Clyde Van Dusen, and 1937 Triple Crown winner War Admiral. Seabiscuit, the 1938 Horse of the Year, was a grandson of Man o' War, so when he won his famous match race against War Admiral, he was beating his more successful nephew.

Also among Man o' War's descendants: 5-time Horse of the Year Kelso (also a descendant of 1943 Triple Crown winner Count Fleet), 1966 Horse of the Year Buckpasser, 1968 Horse of the Year Dr. Fager, 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, and 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.

Man o' War died in 1947, at the age of 31, which was then considered to be old for a retired thoroughbred horse. Samuel Riddle died in 1951, Louis Feustel in 1970, and Johnny Loftus in 1976.

In 1950, the Associated Press named Man o' War the greatest racehorse of the 1st half of the 20th Century. Their other honorees: Babe Ruth for baseball, George Mikan for basketball, Howie Morenz for hockey, Jack Dempsey for boxing, Bill Tilden -- despite his recent scandal -- for men's tennis, Suzanne Lenglen for women's tennis; and Jim Thorpe for football and track and field, and as greatest athlete overall.

*

October 12, 1920 was a Tuesday. There was only one score on this historic day. The Cleveland Indians beat the Brooklyn Robins, 3-0 at League Park in Cleveland. This was Game 7 of the World Series, which was a best-5-out-of-9 event from 1919 to 1921. The Indians thus won the Series.

Both starting pitchers would be elected to the Hall of Fame, and both would, after the season, be among the 17 pitchers "grandfathered in" with the ban on the spitball. Stan Coveleski pitched a 5-hit shutout, defeating Burleigh Grimes, who ended up as the last active spitballer, retiring in 1934. The Indians got their runs on a Grimes throwing error in the 5th inning, their player-manager Tris Speaker hitting an RBI triple in the 5th, and Charlie Jamieson's RBI double in the 7th.

It was the 1st World Championship for the Indians, or any Cleveland-based baseball team. The team now known as the Cleveland Guardians have won it only once since, in 1948.

The Brooklyn team was named the Robins after their manager from 1914 to 1931, Wilbert Robinson. After he was fired, they went back to the name they'd used from 1911 to 1913, and had been nicknamed before that: The Brooklyn Dodgers.

June 11, 1919: The 1st Thoroughbred Triple Crown

June 11, 1919: For the 1st time, a horse wins American thoroughbred racing's "Triple Crown." Except it barely gets noticed at the time.

It used to be that the 3 biggest sports in America were baseball, boxing, and horse racing, "the Sport of Kings." And its 3 biggest races became known as the "Triple Crown." Those races are the Kentucky Derby, traditionally run on the 1st Saturday in May at Churchill Downs, in Louisville, Kentucky, a mile and one-quarter; the Preakness Stakes, usually run 2 Saturdays later at Pimlico Race Course, in Baltimore, a mile and three-sixteenths; and the Belmont Stakes, usually run on the 1st Saturday in June at Belmont Park, just outside the New York City Line in Elmont, Long Island, New York, a race known due to its distance, a mile and a half, as "the true test of champions."

The Belmont was founded in 1867, the Preakness in 1873, and the Kentucky Derby in 1875, so it's been since 1875 that the achievement has been possible. Winning 2 of the 3 had happened 5 times:

* In 1877, Cloverbrook won the Preakness and the Belmont, but Baden-Baden won the Derby.

* In 1878, Duke of Magenta won the Preakness and the Belmont, but Day Star won the Derby.

* In 1880, Grenada won the Preakness and the Belmont, but Fonso won the Derby.

* In 1881, Saunterer won the Preakness and the Belmont, but Hindoo won the Derby.

* In 1895, Belmar won the Preakness and the Belmont, but Halma won the Derby.

Sir Barton was a chestnut colt, foaled on April 26, 1916 in Kentucky. One of his grandfathers was Isinglass, which, in 1893, had won the English version of the Triple Crown: The 2,000 Guineas Stakes, 1 mile, at Newmarket Racecourse in Newmarket, Suffolk, East Anglia; The Derby, a.k.a. the Epsom Derby, 1 mile 4 furlongs and 10 yards, at Epsom Downs Racecourse in Epsom, Surrey; and the St Leger Stakes, 1 mile 6 furlongs and 132 yards, at Town Moor in Doncaster, Yorkshire.

Sir Barton ran only 5 races as a 2-year-old, and didn't win any of them, although he finished 2nd in his last. His 1st race as a 3-year-old was the Kentucky Derby, on May 10, 1919, with Johnny Loftus, a 24-year-old Chicagoan, aboard. He led the race from start to finish, and won by 5 lengths. The Preakness Stakes would be only 4 days later, on May 14, rather than the modern 2-week difference. (This may have been a reason why no horse had ever won both in the same year -- until now.) Again, he led the whole way, and won by 4 lengths.

In the modern era, letting a horse race in the 2 weeks between the Derby and the Preakness, or in the 3 weeks between the Preakness and the Belmont, would be considered lunacy, too great a risk to the horse. But Sir Barton was run in the Withers Stakes, a 1-mile race at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, and he won it. (The Withers is still run at Aqueduct, but has been lengthened to a mile and 1/16th.)

The Belmont was on June 11. At the time, it was shorter than now: 1 and 3/8ths miles. He still managed to win it. That was 4 wins, including all 3 Triple Crown races, in 32 days. That has never been matched.

It took a while for the Triple Crown to become a big deal: Man o' War, considered the greatest racehorse of all time when he ran in 1920, and while he won both the Preakness and the Belmont, his owner thought it was too soon too risk running him in the Derby. (Man o' War ran 21 races, and won 20. The horse that beat him was named Upset, but the term "upset" for an unexpected win in sport was already in common use, so it wasn't named after the horse.)

The Triple Crown was won again by Gallant Fox in 1930, Omaha in 1935, War Admiral in 1937, Whirlaway in 1941, Count Fleet in 1943, Assault in 1946, and Citation in 1948. Citation, in particular, had been so dominant, that when racing fans were asked to name the greatest thoroughbred of all time, he was the 1st one to seriously challenge Man o' War for the title.

From 1949 to 1972, there were 7 horses that won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, but not the Belmont: Tim Tam in 1958, Carry Back in 1961, Northern Dancer in 1964, Kauai King in 1966, Forward Pass in 1968, Majestic Prince in 1969, and Cañonero II in 1971. But the 1970s saw 3 horses take all 3: Secretariat in 1973, Seattle Slew in 1977, and Affirmed in 1978. There was another long drought, before American Pharoah won the Triple Crown in 2015, and Justify did it in 2018.

In 1920, Sir Barton ran 12 races, winning 5. On October 12, a match race was set between him and Man o' War at Kenilworth Park in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, across the river from Detroit. Kenilworth had a hard surface, harder than Sir Barton was used to, and Man o' War beat him by 7 lengths.

Sir Barton was retired to stud at a farm in Berryville, Virginia, and lived until October 30, 1937, at age 20. Loftus lived until 1976, age 80.

*

June 11, 1919 was a Wednesday. This would seem odd to modern readers, who are used to the Triple Crown races being held on Saturdays. These baseball games were played on that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-0 at the Polo Grounds. Jack Quinn pitched a 5-hit shutout. He would still be with the Yankees to help them win their 1st American League Pennant in 1921, although he was traded after the season. He would finally pitch on a World Series winner in 1929 -- at the age of 46. And he threw his last major league pitch on July 7, 1933, 6 days after his 50th birthday. He went 247-218 over his career.

* The New York Giants lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1 at Redland Field (later Crosley Field) in Cincinnati.

* The Brooklyn Robins (as the Dodgers were known while they were managed by Wilbert Robinson from 1914 to 1931) lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-0 at Fenway Park in Boston. Shoeless Joe Jackson went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Claude "Lefty" Williams pitched a 6-hit shutout, beating Carl Mays. By the end of September 1920, each of those men's reputations would be ruined. Babe Ruth did not appear in the game. His reputation would be just fine.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 4-3 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. George Sisler went 2-for-4 with a solo home run.

* The Washington Senators beat the Cleveland Indians, 6-3 at American League Park (later Griffith Stadium) in Washington. Tris Speaker went 0-for-4.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-2 at Weeghman Park (later Wrigley Field) in Chicago.

* And the Boston Braves beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-4 at Robison Field in St. Louis.