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.

Maiden Races - In a maiden race, thoroughbred racehorses who have never won a race compete against each other. Although most horses that compete in maiden races are young, you may see different age groups represented. However, maiden two-year-olds compete only against other two-year-olds. Maiden three-year-olds only compete against other three-year-olds early in the year. These steps help to level the field for maidens, horses who have never won a race. Like a stakes race, all entrants in a maiden race carry the same weight – there is no “handicapping”, where horses carry different weights based on their experience and skill. Want to be a trainer, but have no horse? Try the horse racing game at www.HorseRacingSchool.com. Train your virtual horses and then enter them in races in this virtual download horse race game, so real you'll feel the breeze!

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.