![]() From their stalls, both War Admiral and War Relic, both at stud, could view their sire’s casket. Riddle’s yellow and black colors, the box was positioned in the center aisle of the barn. With the aid of a homemade sling, he was lowered into a 6×9.5×3.5-foot natural-finish oak casket built a few weeks earlier. It took 13 men to lift the horse’s 1,300-pound body from his stall. During the procedure, the Lexington Herald reported, “the big horse’s eyes and mouth were closed and he ‘looked just like he was taking a nap.’” It took more than two hours to embalm Man o’ War. Each bottle of concentrated fluid, when diluted, equaled about a gallon human bodies need only two. He required 23 bottles of embalming fluid. Man o’ War was believed to be the first horse embalmed for a funeral. Newspaper and magazine articles at the time reported. Just after noon on Saturday, November 1, 1947, the greatest of all racehorses breathed his last. “He was never one to suffer placidly anything that displeased him.” Despite being given sedatives, he thrashed on the floor of his stall, fighting “the pain as if it were a visible opponent,” The Blood-Horse wrote. Man o’ War had been ill for months, but his final days were said to be particularly uncomfortable. His was a spirit that could be bridled yet never tamed. In a time considered “the golden age of sports,” Man o’ War stood as horse racing’s Babe Ruth. ![]() Along the way he set five American records, seven track records, and he equaled an eighth. Racing in 19, he won 20 of 21 starts – being odds-on in every single start. He sparked imaginations and embodied power, dominance and imperious pride. Man O’ War won 20 of the 21 races he started. ![]() (Opening Image: As visitors look on, legendary thoroughbred Man O’ War lies in state in a casket lined with his racing colors at owner Samuel Riddle’s Faraway Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, Nov. Southern Mourning | from Southern Calls Issue 9, September 2015 ![]()
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