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I ] j ADIEU TO WAR ADMIRAL I By SALVATOR. ■ , ] , ] j i lj j ] I J i ! ! J , , | I ! i ; i • ! 1 I ! I 1 ] ! ! I ! I I j ! j ! . [ . I I j . , , C j j i | ■ , I s 5 j j . I We have seen the last of War Admiral on I the course. His permanent retirement, when I I I at length announced, was not of course un- -! j expected. It had been known for some time ; that all was not well with him. There was i ! ! also the handicap that his trainer, George ! j j Conway, whose health has been frail for aj l long while, has for some time been unable to ! attend to his duties with the Glen Riddle. ! Stable; and, in fact, may never return to them. Mr. Riddle did not wish to do any-j - thing premature and waited until he was , assured in his own mind that the son of : I Man o War and Brushup was not yielding ; to treatment satisfactorily and then regret- -1 I fully wrote finis to his career as a race ; , horse. i In looking back over that career, it is i disclosed as one that exceeds, in scope and [ ; ! brilliancy combined, that of any other thor- j oughbred that has appeared since Man o - j War himself. This is not saying that War f Admiral was definitely a greater horse than, let us say, such titans as Equipoise, Twenty I Grand, Gallant Fox, Blue Larkspur, Reigh 1 Count or his own paternal half-brother, Crusader, to cite a half-dozen of his turf prcde- . ; cessors that have chiseled their names im-perishably ; upon the granite of turf history; ; • j nor than of his most memorable adversary, Seabiscuit. But what can be said, definitely f and conclusively, is that he touched a higher p average of achievement than any of them. j ; In winning 21 of 26 races and never being "outside the money"— for when on a solitary I , occasion he was technically "unplaced" as fourth in the Massachusetts Handicap, he I j I received ,250 under the conditions of the! ~ ! I stake— he compiled a record which much more nearly equals that of his sire than j I : those of the other horses named. Equipoise B won 29 out of 51; Twenty Grand 14 out of j 25; Gallant Fox 11 out of 17; Blue Larkspur 10 out of 16; Reigh Count 12 out of 27; and j Crusader 18 out of 42. ! j MET THE BEST. j It must be borne in mind that throughout , I his career War Admiral raced against the " j best competition that America could pro- 1 vide. Once his preliminary two-year-old j ■■ essay had been put behind him, he may be said to have been continuously engaged in 1 the first flight, where the strife was the e 1 fiercest, the pace the hottest, and the spot-i I light played most searchingly about him. To 0 i ; , acquit himself as he did, under such cir-! cumstances, was a certificate of class that 1 is not susceptible of negation. I War Admiral had all the attributes of the e j sovereign race horse. His speed was terrific. ;-; I He could hurtle from the barrier like a 1 1 projectile and, if needed, sprint a quarter in :22, a half in :45 or six furlongs in 1:10. • And he could go farther than any other r j horse of his day; leaving them, the farther r he went, the farther behind him. This com- - bination of prodigious speed with the capa- - city to stay two miles or more was ac- ;- companied by equal gameness. He had also the characteristic of the con- - queror — the ability to go out in front, set ;t his own pace, and win "from end to end," no matter what the distance, the company or r I the weight. He could race with facility upon either a "pasteboard track" or a muddy one, S. achieving notable triumphs irrespective of 1 the going. FRACTIOUS IN GATE. His defect as a performer — is such it may f be called — was that he, like many other thoroughbreds, disliked the stalls and rebelled :- against being started out of them. 1. The high gear of his temperament chafed at t being "cribbed, cabined and confined" in n these contrivances, which are supposed to be e an improvement but in reality have contributed 1- nothing to the attractiveness, the e progress or the good form of racing. When n taken out of them he would get off almost at once and, under the conditions that formerly y I I I I -! j ; i ! ! ! j j aj l ! ! - , : I ; -1 I ; , i i [ ; ! j - j f I 1 . ; ; ; • j f p j ; I , I j I ! ~ I j I : B j j ! j j , I " j 1 j ■■ 1 e 1 I 0 ; , i 1 I e j ;-; I a 1 1 • r r j - - ;- - ;t r I S. 1 f :- 1. t in n e 1- e n at y obtained, we would probably never have heard anything of his recalcitrance at the score. There was a brilliance, a sparkle, a "joie de vivre," about the manner in which War Admiral raced that communicated itself to the onlooker. Here was no slave of a tread- mill going dutifully through his appointed tasks, but a colt like unto the horse of Scripture, that rejoiced in his strength and in the tumult and the shouting that accom-5 panied him. Perhaps had nature allotted him a bigger, rangier frame he might have been still a doughtier warrior. Nor was he of the "little giant" type. Though standing only 15 1-2 hands, he had no compensating bulk, being .all lithe, slim, symmetry, debonair elegance, and patrician mold. As a type of the blood-. horse he was exquisite; and a Renaissance sculptor would have gloried in eternalizing his form in bronze or marble for time to study with admiring gaze. WON UNDER DIFFICULTIES. War Admiral was not Fortunes petted darling. When he won his miraculous Bel-. mont in record-breaking time, he left a trail of blood behind him along the quarter-stretch and months were required to fit him for f uther racing. The adversary he was I most anxious to measure strides with per-1 sistently avoided him until he was able to close with him at an advantage. This cost I him an immense sum of money and with it a heavy blow to his prestige. It will always be remembered that when finally they did meet, he was beaten by Seabiscuit— but it will be forgotten, save by the analysts, that again and again Seabiscuit refused to meet him and, upon the most im-! portant occasion of all, deliberately "walked out on him." Nor would he meet him again after that single encounter at Pimlico. It is no secret that Mr. Riddle retained War Admiral in training for 1939, after having first announced his retirement to the stud, to begin service the past spring, principally for the purpose of another duel with his con- queror; and that after the latter had first j again evaded him, and then gone lame, his disappointment was extreme . . . But of such are the fortunes of war. FAST RACES. War Admiral ran five furlongs in :58% at two, under 113 pounds; and six furlongs in 1:11 under 118 pounds; in each instance by lengths and in hand. At three he ran a mile land a half in 2:28% under 126 pounds, the first mile and a quarter in 2:02% and under restraint all the way. At four he ran a mile in 1:36% under 132 pounds; a mile and three- quarters in 2:55%, under 126 pounds; and two miles in 3:24% under 124 pounds. At five, in his only and farewell race he ran seven furlongs in 1:22% under 126 pounds. In most of his races he ran literally alone, nothing being able to get near him. We may say, viewing them judicially, that neither of the two defeats he suffered in 1938 were true bills. At Boston he was obliged to race in such bad going that Sea-biscuit declined the issue after being posted as a starter, and to make immense conces-B sions. In the Pimlico match he was visibly not War Admiral, showing none of his wonted form, so far as racing was concerned, and being very light bodily. However, there is no need to cast War Admiral in the role of an excuse horse. Let us say that he was defeated on those oc-r casions, and allow to the victors the laurels that they reaped. Of each of them it will be always their chief boast that they once beat War Admiral! It is well for the American turf that such horses from time to time appear, not only to thrill, inspire and enthuse those who witness their .performances, but to prove once again the inexhaustible capacity of the thorough-t bred breed to produce animals ranking with the greatest of all time.
