bloodlines that were considered quite fashionable,
and Man o' War's grandsire was the mean-spirited
1896 Belmont Stakes winner Hastings, a savage
competitor known to bite and bash his rivals in races.
At age 64, Belmont enlisted in the United States
Army to help with the World War I effort, and while
he was overseas his wife named the new colt Man
o' War in his honor. But once the U.S. and its allies
were victorious and Belmont returned home, the
family decided to liquidate its racing stable. At the
Saratoga yearling sale in 1918, Man o' War sold for
$5,000 to Samuel D. Riddle.
Owner Riddle and Hall-of-Fame trainer Louis
Feustel quickly found out the precocious colt had
inherited his grandsire's ornery spirit. "He fought
like a tiger," Riddle recounted in a National Museum
of Racing biography of a Man o' War. "He screamed
with rage and fought us so hard that it took several
days before he could be handled with safety." An-
other Saratoga story describes Man o' War enjoying
"more than 15 minutes of freedom after launching
his rider more than 40 feet" during a morning work-
out.
But when Man o' War's connections finally got
him ready to race, on June 6, 1919, at Belmont Park,
it became evident that the 2-year-old could chan-
nel his rage into blazingly fast on-track brilliance.
Winning his debut under stout restraint by an easy six
lengths, "he made half-a-dozen high-class youngsters
look like $200 horses," the Morning Telegraph reported.
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