Memorabilia

August Belmont II (breeder) estate auction catalog		Racing Form digests from 1918 and 1919		Samuel D. Riddle (owner) estate auction catalog
Click on the picture above to download a snippet of Man o' War's match race with Sir Barton. No sound. (avi file 2985 kb)		Shoe worn by Man o' War when he beat Sir Barton		Click on the picture above to download movie of 24 year old Man o' War on Faraway Farm. (avi file 3295 kb)

A note from the creator of this website

           I've always loved horses.  Even at the age of four, I can recall strolling slowly past pastures of grazing horses and feeling a sense of completeness that I felt nowhere else.  Funds were tight in our family and we didn't have the money to buy a horse, so I collected a few models, drew horses, read about them, and studied them endlessly.
           I discovered Man o' War when I was around 11 or 12 years old, thanks to the help of our sympathetic school librarian.  The horse has been a passion of mine ever since.  That life-changing event came in the form of a book, Walter Farley's novelization of the life of "Big Red".  I learned how to look up reference material in our local libraries because of Man o' War.  My father showed me how, and I can still remember the thrill of reading newspaper accounts of the races, written by people who had seen his career unfold before their eyes. 
           Little did I dream that someday I'd be collecting those vintage newspapers.  I can recall how thrilled I was in a high school history class when a film re-cap for 1920 showed us a glimpse of Man o' War's match race with America's first Triple Crown winner Sir Barton.  I'm delighted to say it is here for you to watch as well.  Since that day, I've scrutinized newsreels carefully, hoping to spot that familiar proud head.  One such newsreel, filmed when Man o' War was 24 years old, made it to this page.  I've also collected books written by horsemen of the era, Racing Form digests which gave the results of every race in early 1919, and old programs, listing Man o' War on the "eligible" lists.  Both Man o' War's owner and breeder left impressive estates behind them.  I've got the auction catalogs which lists each item.  My pride of the collection, however, has to be one of Man o' War's  horseshoes, originally belonging to his trainer, Louis Feustel.  Feustel kept it as a souvenir of the Man o' War / Sir Barton match race.  It eventually made it's way to a member of the Secretariat entourage in a trade around the time that wonderful horse won the Triple Crown.  A couple years ago the Man o' War horseshoe was sold, and so it came to me.
           I have the feeling I'm only just beginning!