Triple Crown Flashback Man O’ War Could Have Been The Second Triple Crown Winner

By Author: Lee Lane-Edgar
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In 1920, when Man o’ War was a three year old, the Triple Crown wasn’t seen as the holy grail of horse racing. After all, Sir Barton the previous year became the only horse that had captured all three jewels of the Triple Crown up to that point, so the prestige of accomplishing this feat that has built up over the years hadn’t yet had time to develop. In fact, at that time, it wasn’t even called the Triple Crown.

Nicknamed “Big Red” just as Secretariat would be called 50 years later, Man o’ War only lost once in a 21 race career, and that was as a two year old to a horse named Upset. Man o’War got off to a slow start and was gaining but came up a half-length short. He would never lose again.

Why he skipped the Kentucky Derby

It is very likely that Man o’ War would have been the second Triple Crown winner if it weren’t for his owner who believed that the testing distance of the 1-¼ mile Kentucky Derby was too much too soon for a young three year old.

As a result, his first start of his three year old season was in the shorter 1-1/8 mile Preakness Stakes off of an eight ...
... month layoff, a course of action that would be absolutely unheard of today, winning it, and setting a track record. He went on to take the Belmont Stakes and established an American record for the 1-3/8 mile distance.

Sometimes people get so caught up in Secretariat’s spectacular 31-length Belmont victory that people forget the other Big Red’s 20-length Belmont victory in which he was taken up the final 1/16th of a mile. It is true that he only faced one opponent, which shows how much he intimidated.
The distance was a shorter 1-3/8 miles, but the time for that time period was spectacular, running a 2:14 while being eased up at the end. Remember that times were much slower back then, possibly because of training methods, but also tracks were generally slower.

So dominant and feared was he, that only once after his Preakness victory did he face as many as three rivals, with the rest of his races facing either one or two others.

After the Belmont

As the summer wore on, he went on to establish his legend by dominating eight more races, including an incredible 100-length win in the 1-5/8 mile Lawrence Realization won under restraint.

On October 12, 1920, in what would be the final race of his career, Man o’ War achieved the next best thing to a Triple Crown by easily defeating the previous year’s Triple Crown winner, Sir Barton. In a 1-¼ mile match race in the Kenilworth Park Gold Cup, Man o’ War immediately took the lead while Sir Barton stalked him one length behind as they passed the wire for the first time.

This was his only race captured on film, and the video shows that as they came around the far turn, Man o’ War was in complete control, leading the Triple Crown winner by 15 lengths under stout restraint, galloping home an easy 7-length winner.

After this triumph over Sir Barton, Man o’ War was retired to stud and sired other famous horses such as 1929 Kentucky Derby winner, Clyde Van Dusen and War Admiral, who was the 1937 Triple Crown winner.
Man o' War was ranked No. 1 in Blood Horse magazine’s ranking of the top 100 U.S. Thoroughbred champions of the 20th century