HorseRacingHeroes

In a geological timescale, horse racing hasn't been around for very long as at all. Just a blip, really. However, since we generally don't think of ourselves or especially our past times on a geologic timescale, it's fair to say that, on the kind of timescale that we think of, thoroughbred horse racing has a rich and storied history, complete with it's own list of heroes and villains. With all the options available to the average fan theses days, what with baseball, football, basketball, hockey and other non-traditional sports, it's easy for us to forget, or not even be aware of, the fact that there was a time in the United States when the two biggest and most popular sports in the United States was baseball and horse racing. Late in the 1910's there appeared one of the sport's most legendary heroes, the great champion Man o' War. He lost only one career race and he almost certainly would have won the Triple Crown had he been permitted to run in the Kentucky Derby, which his owner Sam Riddle didn't allow because he didn't like the idea of a horse being shipped that far west (this was back in the days before common airline travel) and racing a three-year-old horse that early in the spring season. In the second half of the 20th century the undisputed horse racing hero, the one that towered over all the rest, was the 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat. His astounding victories in all three races, as well as his almost incomprehensible victory in the title-clinching Belmont Stakes, and all of those things taking place in an age when television was near it's most popular, guaranteed that the concept of the penultimate horse racing hero would exist and would continued to for generations to come.

Racetracks List - San Antonio Handicap - Run at Santa Anita since the mid 1950s, this Grade II race is for thoroughbreds age three and older. Distance is a mile and an 8th on the Polytrack surface. Pacific Classic - Since 1993 this has been a Grade I event is far and away the most prestigious race held at Del Mar Racetrack. The purse for this race is rdaddphp million and features an automatic spot in the Breeders' Cup Classic for the winner. Open for thoroughbreds aged 3 and older. Kentucky Derby - Held at Churchill Downs annually on the first Saturday in May, this 3 year old race is the marquee event in all of thoroughbred racing. This mile and a quarter race is the first leg of the Triple Crown, which consists of the Kentucky Derby, The Preakness Stakes, and The Belmont Stakes. The distance of this race is almost always the farthest a thoroughbred has run up to that point, and the field by far the largest they will ever compete against. The Preakness - Held two weeks following the Kentucky Derby at Pimlico Racetrack, this race is the 2nd leg of the Triple Crown. Horses run a mile and 3/16th's, and high drama usually accompanies the Preakness because of the possibility of a Triple Crown if the Kentucky Derby winner prevails. Belmont Stakes - Run three weeks after the Preakness, The Belmont Stakes is the final, and toughest, leg of the Triple Crown. Run at a mile and a half, this race is the last remaining Grade I stakes race at that distance run in North America. In today's racing climate, the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders' Cup Classic are annually the biggest races, but a Belmont with a Triple Crown at stake is bigger than any other event in racing. Gulfstream Park Handicap - A Grade 2 race held in early March with a 0,000 purse, this race is open to horses 4 and older and run at a distance of a mile and 3/16th's. Santa Anita Handicap - Known as "The Big Cap" because when first run in the mid-1930s it's 0,000 purse was the largest ever offered, this mile and a quarter race is run in March and is open to thoroughbreds age 4 and older. Seabiscuit returned from injury in 1940 to win this race after being denied two previous times.

Man O' War - Man O’ War (1917-1947) may have been the greatest thoroughbred race horse of all time. In his two-year racing career, he won 20 of 21 races, earning almost 0,000. Many argue that the single race he lost was unfair; none can argue with his impressive record, which includes two American records and three world records. In the Lawrence Realization Stakes at the Aqueduct Racetrack, Man O’ War set a track record that still stands today, winning his race by a shocking 100 lengths. At his match race with Sir Barton, the Triple Crown winner from the previous race, Man O’ War won handily, with an easy lead of seven lengths. After the second season, Man O’ War was retired to stud, where he shone as a sire of exceptional racehorses like Crusader, War Admiral, War Relic, and Hard Tack, sire of the famed Seabiscuit. Today, his remains are buried at the Kentucky Horse Park.