You gave me goosebumps, baby! I love horse racing and he was a personal favorite of mine.

If you look at him too, he was a MONSTER, compared to the streamlined build of many TB today.

Ah, I love this video. What a magnificent animal!!

That was amazing!
The NBC footage of the match race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral is pretty impressive, too. Surprisingly, the movie (the newest one) was a pretty accurate reenactment, too.

Man O' War.

Look him up.

He's Seabiscuit's grandsire, and War Admiral's sire.
My vote's on him as best American racehorse in history.

He's my favorite sports hero!!

And the sire and grand sire of some amazing names in racing even today: Seattle Slew, A.P. Indy, Storm Cat, Smarty Jones, Cigar, and Rags to Riches!

Any time you see Bold Ruler in the pedigree, you might be seeing Secretariat!

Such a beautiful, amazing animal. Every year we wonder if his records will fall, and every year we marvel that they don't! But we may see a Smarty Jones foal in the Derby coming up!

(Note to self, check pedigrees of winners to see who famous sires amy be..)

Both these horses were nicknamed 'Big Red'.

However, Man O'War might have been the better horse.
Man O' War was not permitted to run the Kentucky Derby, his owner felt that it was too early and too far for a three-yr-old; the courses for two-yr-olds were sprints all under a mile. He had swamped the competition as a two, and was beaten only once, by a horse named 'Upset'--M.O'W. 's jockey was blamed for running a bad race and letting him get boxed in. He was gaining on the leaders at the wire and would have caught them in a longer race;

Man O War was always run under a tight rein...he may never have been extended to his fullest!

Man O' War and Secretariat shared one factor that made them great: HUGE hearts. Not 'heart' as in singleminded-persistence, although they had that too, but physically HUGE hearts. Interestingly, the genetic factor for the large heart comes from the MARE'S side, not the sire... Big Red #1 never had teh quality of mares he needed to carry on his speed, and #2 is known as a broodmare sires rather than direct producer of champion colts.

A second trait they shared was extreme length of stride. Ever see the picture of Secretariat in the Preakness, stretched out flat? That long stride and free-moving shoulder is a trademark of Nasrullah breeding, Bold Ruler lines in particular. Horses of this breeding without speed make wonderful dressage 'hunter-jumper' and 3-day eventing prospects.

Many Appaloosas and Quarterhorses carry blood of both these horses due to the 'racing lines' in both breeds. Secretariat's first foal was out of an Appaloosa mare named Leola. I happen to own a granddaughter and great=grandson of F.S. , and several Apps that trace to Man O' war. It is going to be very interesting crossing these horses on each other...<VBG>