I just found your website here due to a Google Search on the heavy metal band Manowar--go figure!
I agree that Man O' War was the greatest racehorse (stallion) EVER. All the things you pointed out on the front page are true, and also keep in mind that they didn't have modern starting gates back then either... the horses just milled around behind a web barrier, only halfway under control and more-or-less in their post positions, until that barrier swept up and let them run. I also read someplace that he was never allowed to run as fast as he wanted to...they only let him run fast enough to win easily. The only race he lost was to Upset (by a nose) in a 6 furlong sprint and due to a lot of bad choices by his jockey and bad racing luck.
I've always loved horse racing--watching them run and trying so hard to get in front. I love watching them in the pasture, too. I do NOT like what has become of horse racing as an industry and business--but that appears to be in the beginnings of change finally. Better breeding and training methods and less drugs. But don't get me going on THAT!
But breeding is where I was going with the title for this message. My idea of a racing "Dream Horse" that I would have liked to see. Never mind that the Stallion and Mare lived about 40 years apart. It's a dream, right? Can you imagine what a foal by Man O'War out of Ruffian would have been like? The two greatest racehorses I can think of, that make truly excellent horses like Secretariat and Barbaro look mediocre by comparison. Walter Farley was quoted someplace as saying that Ruffian was more like his fictional horse The Black than any other flesh-and-blood horse. Of course, I grew up on the whole Black Stallion series, and even got to meet Walter Farley and go to his barn with him once, so I really remembered that quote!
