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. Perhaps, with the horse's name, she was giving her husband too much credit) 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 closed for the Summer, and everybody interested in horse racing went Upstate to Saratoga Race Course. On August 13, Man o' War ran at Saratoga, in the Sanford Memorial Stakes. 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, in sports or in politics, 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.
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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.
