view raw text
Flotilla chestnut nuw 5 Friendship Two "By MAN O WAR 5:???::;55 chesinux covr SANT1SSIMO nffSp " M, .fee V? B MAN" OWAR-srANAME owned by S.J. "RIDDLB M JSI OWNETBy JAME5 K.MADDUJC BY WAN O WAR SMOKY LAMP U WPHL llMl RStl brA-Y FILLY 1 sister to diogenes n??riTln lliiio UT" JJm mnT I by MAN O WAR-baihing GtKL I i , J 5 owned BY W.M.JEFFORDS i - - j g 11" lg WILL MAN 0 WAR PROVE A GREAT SIRE? BY SALVATOR. : HI Man 0 War sends his first crop to the races!! To me there are three supremely alluring prospects held out by the approaching racing season of 1924 at the major tracks of America. Named in their order of popular interest, they are as follows: 1. The visit of Epinard, the French chcam-pion, and the series of races he is to run against Zev and our other "defenders." 2. The performances, in the three-year-old classics of Sarazen, St. James and Wise Counsellor; with the possibility of their also ccming together in some special events. 3. The debut of the first crop of foals by Man o "War in the two-year-old events. According to the Good Book, "the last shall be first," and I rather imagine that, taking everything into consideration, the success or failure of Alan o War as a sire really means more far more, indeed than do either Epinards "invasion" or the three-year-old championship. For, in the last analysis, everything rests upon the breeding foundation. Sensational race horses come and go, "strut their brief hour," then in mcst cases pass into oblivion, and, except for a faithful few, never are recalled to memory. It is the breed, and the evolution of the breed, that holds the permanent interest and is of lasting significance. The question. Will Man o War succeed or fail as a sire? is, therefore, one pregnant with great possibilities. How it is answered will mean much to the future of Americas thoroughbred interests. Should he score a great success, it will have an effect immensely stimulative. Should he score a failure, it will have an effect similarly depressing. . A DELUGE OF SUPERLATIVES. Personally. I have always regarded the reputation of Man o War as overblown. To the discriminating, the fulsome and perfervid "bunk" and "hokum" that have marked his career, from the publicity standpoint, have prejudiced, rather than elevated, his prestige. The deluge of superlatives, the flaming headlines proclaiming him the "Wonder Horse of All Time," and the like, have nauseated many turfmen well competent to judge of greatness. That he was a marvelous racing machine, and a speed marvel as well, nobody for a moment wishes to deny. But the fact remains, and always will remain, that during his career of conquest he never beat a first-class horse, or one even ap proaching first-class estate, with the sole exception of Sir Barton. And all the world is aware that the Sir Barton race was a circus affair, and out-and-out "hippodrome," and that it never would have happened on any ether basis. So it does not count. Sane and judicial persons are not attracted to Man o War by the hysteria and red ink that have bespattered him until beneath them it is difficult to make out just exactly what the true measure of his merit is or was. As one somewhat satirical commentator has observed, "He is a riddle horse. But perhaps the performances of his progeny may help us to solve the riddle; not by guess cr gush, but something tangible. Just at present, Man o War occupies a position somewhat analogous to that occupied by Salvator at the moment when his first two-year-olds were "on the threshold." That he was as great a racer as Salvator he never demonstrated, for Salvator flourished in an era of titans the era of Tenny, Kingston, Firenze, Raceland, Proctor Knott, Longstreet, Prince Royal, Elkwood, Diablo, Terra Cotta and the like. And his dominance was complete. It is doubtful if any modern American thoroughbred ever excited the enthusiasm, or so appealed to the popular imagination, as did Salvator, until Man o War appeared. "Publicity" was, in Salvators era, an "infant industry" in comparison with what it has since become. The furor that attended him was neither trumped up nor pumped up. Neither his owner nor his trainer cultivated the "fourth estate" for the purpose of reclame and the prestige he attained was a spontaneous emotion, due exclusively to the splendor of his performances. When we recall the enormous vogue that the "movie" of the Man o War-Sir Barton "match" enjoyed, aiid the great factor it was in making the general public of the United States of America acquainted with him, we realize that Salvators fame in his day was but a shadow of wh.it such a horse would today achieve. The Man o War-Sir Barton "picture" was absolutely destitute of thrills, because there was not a moment of real contest in it. Imagine, then, the excitement that good "movies" of Salvators Suburban and his match, which was a real one, against Tenny would produce, replete as those races were with the most extreme elements of spectacular sensation. SALVATOR "NOT GREAT STUD SUCCESS. Salvator remained upon the turf as a four-year-old, while Man o War was hurried to the stud at the conclusion of his three-year-old campaign. Salvator was not the success as a sire that his admirers hoped he would be, though he was anything but the absolute failure that he is often represented as being. It now remains to be seen whether Man o AVar will duplicate the career of Prince Charlies son in .this respect or not. History is so full of instances of racers of supreme greatness that failed of success cr, at least, of great success as sires, that no amount of turf glory, be it never so lesplendent, can be taken as a guarantee of glory at the stud. It is unnecessary to "name names," to be invidious. The condition is one known and admitted by all. The optimism of the human race and that segment of it devoted to the turf simply revels iti optimism, however, persists in regarding every great racer as potentially a great sire until he has been proved otherwise. So Man o War went to the stud at a fee larger than was asked for the most successful of Americas proved progenitors. And thjs fee has been maintained up to the present writing. Should his first foals, so shortly to make their debuts, prove successful racers, it will probably go higher yet. Should they fail to do so, it will come down, possibly with some velocity. It is, I tli ink, the hope of all persons of generous feeling that Man o War will make an immediate and permanent success as a sire. For good or ill, and . irrespective of just what his exact merits may have been or are, he has become something of a "national institution." It is not well that such a thing should be discredited. On the contrary, it is something vastly to be deplored. A DEPRESSING EFFECT. It exercises, as I have said in the beginning, a depressing effect to which the whole breeding industry reacts. Nobody can estimate, even with the historical perspective to aid him, the immense stimulus and constructive stability that the immediate and great success of Lexington as a sire gave to the cause of the American thoroughbred. It cannot be calculated, for it was simply incalculable. Could Man o War even approximate such a success, the result would be similar. These thoughts have been obtruding themselves upon me for some time past, and their "release" just now is due to the fact that the camera men have lately visited "the blue grass" and the Sabbath supplements and mid-week pictorials, as well as many other publications, have made liberal use of their spoils. Man o AVar and his "young hopefuls" have been "snapped", in all sorts of poses and as displayed via the rotogravures, with their distinguished chaperone. Miss Daingerfield, they make attractive subjects. Though I may say in passing that I have never yet seen either a photo, or a reproduction of one that I considered a really good portrait of Man o War. Comparatively few photographers, even among professional experts, have the capacity to pose a race horse properly before the camera, or, rather, can "press the button" when the horse has properly posed himself. We have no American Rouch or Hailey, or photographer who turns out plates comparable to those reproduced in the superb album, "Les Grands EValons de Pur Sang de France," which I recently reviewed for Daily Racing Form. VISITED AND STUDIED "MAX 0 WAR. Man o War I have visited and studied lepeatcdly since his. retirement to the stud, and at various seasons of the year. He is not at all a beautiful horse, but is an impressive one. He was and is a grand equine engine, whose conformation bespeaks his capacities. In the last year or so he has matured perceptibly. He seems not so high on the leg as when a colt, but has lengthened and "let down." There is a lot to him enough and more than enough to pass on to a family of his own, in which respect he distinctly excels more than one great race horse. Sev-erel of the now yearlings and two-year-olds by him that the camera men have "caught" I have also seen, some of them beside their dams, others at later periods. They have shown or then did the stanrg of their pro genitor; which, on the whole, may be taken as a "good sign." I have never indulged in dissertations upon and descriptions of weanlings, yearlings and the like. For the most part, writing of thi3 sort is mere space-filling and sawing of the air "nothing but words." There are occasional colts and fillies so outstanding that a blind man would pick them as "firsts." But for the most part, no matter how expert he may pretend to be, no mans opinion is worth much upon a Aveanling, a yearling, or an entirely green , two-year-old. Of all lotteries in horseflesh, they are entitled to the palm. Of which, no better proof could be adduced than the immense list that easily could be compiled of colts and fillies for which immense prices had been .paid, that proved to be counterfeits; and the equally immense one of others for which beggarly ones were paid, that turned out bright particular stars. How many an aspiring owner has retained the most pompous "experts" in circulation, who have exuded "tap-roots," "figures" and biometrics from every pore; together with others who could unto a hair decide the most delicate points of individuality, followed their findings with the most childlike faith and found himself, the riext summer, sporting a variegated assortment of "clams"! There be many inspired geniuses of this category who, by looking at the outsides of the produce of Man o War, also the insides of their pedigrees, can predict what they are going to do at the races. But as a matter of cold fact, what they will do "nobody knows" until they have gone and done it. and thus endeth the parable.
