War Admiral

War Admiral (USA) 1934 Brown Colt   Man o' War (USA) x Brushup (USA), by Sweep (USA)

Of all the sons of Man o’ War, few looked less like Big Red than did War Admiral. A small, compact, smoothly made brown horse, he was the physical antithesis of his big, high-headed, bright chestnut sire. But War Admiral was his father’s son where it counted most – in his heart.

The little brown colt (he topped out at 15 hands, 2-1/4 inches) came by his small size quite honestly. His granddam, Annette K., stood only fifteen hands and three-quarters of an inch; his dam Brushup, whose sire was the small and compact Belmont Stakes winner Sweep, was even smaller, standing only fourteen hands, 3-3/4 inches. If racing historian John Hervey’s description of her is to be believed, however, Brushup was as exquisite as she was small, with perfect balance and symmetry; her only real fault was having a shoulder perhaps a little straighter than the ideal.

Although she was a half sister to the good stakes winner War Glory (by Man o’ War), Brushup ran only three times, all at age two, and had only a second and a third to her credit. War Admiral was her second foal (her first was the winning filly Flag Raising, by American Flag), and by most accounts, Samuel Riddle was more than a little disenchanted with the youngster on seeing how closely he resembled his dam. He had already bred and raced champions American Flag and Crusader – both big, powerful chestnuts like Man o’ War himself – and to his mind, that was what a son of Man o’ War should look like. Perhaps he felt that War Admiral’s resemblance to his dam might extend to his racing talent as well as his looks. And so he urged Walter Jeffords, his nephew by marriage (Jeffords’ wife was the niece of Riddle’s wife) to take War Admiral for his own racing stable. The situation was ironic, for it was Walter Jeffords who had imported the colt’s granddam, *Bathing Girl, from England. *Bathing Girl was in foal to Harry of Hereford at the time of her importation, and Jeffords gave the resulting filly, Annette K., to Riddle for his broodmare band.

Jeffords refused the gift, though his reasons remain unclear. He may have felt the colt had little promise and did not want to be burdened with him; conversely, he may have suspected something of the colt’s ability and did not want to be in the position of dealing with his older kinsman’s irascible temper if the colt turned out well. In any event, Riddle found himself stuck with the best horse he would ever breed.

War Admiral went into training with George Conway, who had been Louis Feustel’s stable foreman during the glory days of Man o’ War. When Feustel quit as Riddle’s trainer in 1921, Conway stayed on and worked with Gwyn Thompkins, who trained Riddle’s horses through the 1925 racing season. Thompkins then retired, and Riddle promoted Conway to the vacant position. Conway opened his career as head trainer with a flourish by training Crusader to consensus honors as champion three-year-old male and Horse of the Year in 1926, and while the Riddle stable had not reached quite the same heights since then, Conway had shown himself quite capable with the material given to him.

More precocious than many of the progeny of Man o’ War, War Admiral made his first start in a four and one-half furlong maiden race at Havre de Grace on April 25, 1936. He showed both speed and courage in this, his debut, winning by a nose over Sonny Joe in a hard drive. In his second start, this at Belmont Park on May 21, he again showed early speed and zipped five furlongs in :58-4/5, winning by two lengths over Scintillator, who won the Juvenile Stakes later that season.

War Admiral made his first start in stakes company in the National Stallion Stakes on June 6 and finished third behind eventual champion juvenile male Pompoon. He next ran second to Fairy Hill in the Great American Stakes. Plans to race the colt at the Saratoga meeting fell through after War Admiral fell prey to the coughing epidemic that decimated most of the major stables’ youngsters that year, and War Admiral ended up staying on the sidelines for two and a half months.

The colt made his return start in the Eastern Shore Handicap at Havre de Grace. It looked like a tough spot for a youngster coming back from a substantial layoff as among the fifteen horses entered was Maedic, who had taken advantage of the illness of many top juveniles to sweep the major juvenile events at Saratoga. In addition, War Admiral had drawn the far outside post. It didn’t matter. Under Charley Kurtsinger, who would become his regular pilot, he took the lead early and stormed home five lengths in front of Orientalist without ever being extended, missing the track record for six furlongs by only two-fifths of a second.

As War Admiral had not been nominated to any of the rich fall futurities – apparently due to Riddle’s early dislike of him – he made his final start of the season in the Richard Johnson Handicap at Laurel. The track came up muddy, and War Admiral was not quite able to concede five pounds to Bottle Cap, losing by a length and a half after leading most of the way. It was a good campaign but not a stellar one, earning War Admiral a rating of 121 pounds on the Experimental Free Handicap. Six colts were rated higher, including divisional champion Pompoon at 126 pounds.

Riddle had apparently lost his dislike of the colt by this time, for he nominated War Admiral to all three Triple Crown events, in the process breaking his own long-standing prejudice that the first Saturday in May was too early to ask a three-year-old to carry 126 pounds over a mile and a quarter. His decision was perhaps influenced by the increasing prestige of the Triple Crown, which had not existed as a concept in Man o’ War’s day or in that of Man o’ War’s other great son, Crusader. It was not until 1930 that Bryan Field of the New York Times applied the term to Gallant Fox’s sweep of the major spring events for three-year-olds in Kentucky, Maryland, and New York. Charles Hatton of the Daily Racing Form picked up the term and began using it in his own columns, and by the time of Omaha’s Derby-Preakness-Belmont sweep in 1935, the “Triple Crown” was firmly entrenched in American racing lore.

War Admiral began his three-year-old campaign on April 14, 1937, in an allowance race at Havre de Grace. He won neatly in 1:11-2/5 and, on Conway’s orders, galloped out another two furlongs to complete a mile in 1:41. That set War Admiral up nicely for the mile and one-sixteenth Chesapeake Stakes at the same track. In this race, War Admiral was fractious at the start, but once away shot to the front and stayed there, winning by six lengths under a pull. The second-place horse, Court Scandal, had earlier won the Flamingo Stakes at Hialeah.

The Chesapeake Stakes was considered a major Kentucky Derby prep at the time, and War Admiral’s performance was sufficiently impressive to make him the early Derby favorite. His odds dropped still further after he worked the full Derby distance in 2:08-3/5 under rainy conditions just four days before the race. He eventually went off at odds of 3-2, with the second-choice Milky Way Stable entry of Reaping Reward and Military at 9-2.

War Admiral was by this time getting an increasingly bad reputation for acting up at the start, and he was one of several horses who helped delay the start of the sixty-third Kentucky Derby by eight minutes. Once he got past the start, however, it was all over; he led throughout and won “in hand” by one and one-half lengths over Pompoon in 2:03-1/5, then the second-fastest Derby on record. (The fastest to that time was Twenty Grand’s clocking of 2:01-4/5 in 1931.)

The Preakness was only a week after the Derby in 1937 and turned out to be a rematch between War Admiral and Pompoon, who besides Merry Maker were the only horses from the Kentucky Derby to go on to the second leg of the Triple Crown. War Admiral again led throughout, but the finish was much closer as Kurtsinger allowed War Admiral to go very wide on the final turn. Pompoon at the same time cut in very sharply to the rail, by that move making up the one and one-half lengths that had separated him from War Admiral. The two colts came down the stretch on virtually even terms, but the appearance of equality was deceptive; while Pompoon was under the whip and being driven full-out, Kurtsinger merely flourished the whip at War Admiral and otherwise sat tight. War Admiral won by a head.

As it does today, three weeks separated the Preakness and the Belmont in 1937. Conway used the interval to work the colt no less than three times at the full Belmont distance of a mile and a half. The final work, four days before the Belmont, went in 2:34-3/5.

The Belmont itself proved the easiest of the Triple Crown races for War Admiral if the final margin is taken as the only indicator. After helping delay the start of the race by eight minutes, the colt stumbled at the break but recovered quickly and led throughout to win by three lengths in 2:28-3/5, equaling the American record set by Handy Mandy in the 1927 Latonia Derby and breaking the Belmont track record set by none other than Man o’ War himself.

But in the winner’s circle, Conway spotted blood splashed over the colt’s belly and legs. War Admiral, as it turned out, had sheared off a chunk of the quarter of his own right forefoot in that stumble at the break and had run the entire race with blood spurting from what must have been a painful injury. Other horses have since run faster Belmonts, but surely none have shown more gameness.

Although War Admiral recovered well enough from his injury to make a public workout under silks on the day of the Travers Stakes at Saratoga, he did not make an actual start until October 26, when he faced tough older horses in a mile and one-sixteenth allowance race at Laurel. He won easily by two and one-half lengths over Aneroid, who had won the Suburban Handicap earlier that year. Four days later, War Admiral was wheeled back in the ten-furlong Washington Handicap at the same track. Although a hoped-for meeting with the emerging handicap star Seabiscuit did not materialize due to the Biscuit’s having missed a key work, leading to his being scratched, War Admiral was nonetheless impressive in romping to a length and one-half victory.

War Admiral’s final race of the season was in the Pimlico Special at a mile and three-sixteenths, only four days after the Washington Handicap. Aside from the Preakness, it was his only close call of the year, and some observers suggested that at least part of the reason was a dislike for the footing at Pimlico. Another factor may well have been weight, as War Admiral was burdened with 128 pounds and was conceding a minimum of nineteen pounds to each of his rivals. And, of course, he may simply have been a bit tired, given that this was his third race in eight days. In any event, he was uncharacteristically slow in the early going and was under the whip with a half-mile to go, chasing Masked General, who had but 100 pounds aboard. The Admiral might perhaps have been beaten except that Masked General flew wide on the final turn; reversing the tactics that Pompoon had used against him in the Preakness, War Admiral slipped through on the inside and in the closing stages of the race drew off to win by a length and a half. That concluded an unbeaten three-year-old campaign in which War Admiral had won eight races and $166,500. He was named champion three-year-old male and Horse of the Year by the Daily Racing Form, by Turf & Sport Digest, and by The Blood-Horse. (Another magazine, Horse & Horsemen, named Seabiscuit as Horse of the Year but concurred with the other industry publications in naming War Admiral as champion three-year-old male.)

War Admiral’s first major target at four highlighted the rising importance of winter and early spring racing in Florida, for he was slated for the Widener Handicap on March 6, 1938. Conway had a problem in finding a tightener for his star, however, for the overnight handicaps that came up kept assigning 130 pounds to War Admiral, the same as his weight assignment for the Widener. Sam Riddle was insistent that War Admiral, now the apple of his eye, should not have to carry the same weight in a mere prep that he would have in the main event, and it was not until February 19 that an allowance race came up in which War Admiral would only have to carry 122 pounds. War Admiral acted up so badly at the start that the starter barred him from the gate, forcing him to start from a line behind the gate on the extreme outside; this would become the routine for War Admiral’s later races. The self-imposed handicap troubled the colt not at all as he scurried straight to the front from the start and stayed there all the way, winning easily by a length and a half. He repeated that performance in the Widener on March 5 while conceding second-place Zevson 26 pounds.

Seabiscuit, who had been the nation’s champion handicap horse in 1936, dropped the Santa Anita Handicap by a nose to Stagehand on the same day as the Widener. He had been conceding the winner thirty pounds, however, and now that it was apparent that both the heroes of the preceding season were in excellent form, the public wanted to see them meet. A $100,000 winner-take-all match was arranged for a mile and a quarter at Belmont Park on May 30, with each horse to carry 126 pounds, but six days before the race, Seabiscuit developed physical problems that forced his withdrawal.

War Admiral was then entered for the Suburban Handicap on May 28, for which he was assigned 132 pounds, but scratched the morning of the race due to rains the night before. As it turned out, the track dried out to such an extent that Snark ended up setting a new stakes record for the event, and the public disgust for the owners of both Seabiscuit and War Admiral regarding their decisions was loud and ugly.

The Riddle colt did show up for the June 4 Queens County Handicap in which he faced off against Snark over one mile. For once, War Admiral behaved himself in the gate and rated nicely once out of it, defeating Snark by a length while conceding him six pounds (132 to 126).

In his next start, the Massachusetts Handicap, War Admiral may have been as much the victim of the public acrimony surrounding the canceled match race in May as of the conditions. Both he and Seabiscuit were expected to contest the race, but Seabiscuit was scratched late after the track’s veterinarians supported trainer “Silent Tom” Smith’s assertion that heat had been detected in one of the horse’s legs, indicating an injury. As for War Admiral, he might well have been scratched earlier in the day when the track came up muddy save that Riddle had already endured one firestorm of criticism for scratching the horse due to track conditions. He doubtless was not happy with sending War Admiral to the post under 130 pounds in off going, but he may well have felt he owed it to the public to keep the horse in the race this time.

War Admiral and Seabiscuit had been the co-highweights for the race and were weighted from twenty-three to twenty-nine pounds above the rest of the field. Among the other entrants was the 1936 champion juvenile Menow, winner of the Withers Stakes five weeks earlier. Menow was in with only 107 pounds, and when the gate opened up, he raced out to a huge lead and won easily – to the great embarrassment of the Suffolk Downs management, which had been so sure that War Admiral would win that they had actually made up the winner’s floral wreath in the black-and-yellow colors of the Riddle stable. A leg-weary War Admiral staggered home fourth, unplaced for the only time in his career.

War Admiral did not start again until the Saratoga meeting, during which he won the Wilson Stakes, the Saratoga Handicap, the Whitney Stakes, and the Saratoga Handicap. The latter three were all at the expense of the tough older mare Esposa, and in none of them was War Admiral under more than a hand ride at the finish. His next conquest was the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont on October 1. Seabiscuit had been entered, but a loss in the mile and one-half Manhattan Handicap on September 20 was apparently enough to convince his connections that they wanted no part of War Admiral in a two-mile race, for the Biscuit headed for Maryland instead. That left only the three-year-olds Magic Hour – winner of that year’s Lawrence Realization at a mile and five-eighths -- and Jolly Tar to challenge War Admiral, and the Riddle colt led throughout to defeat Magic Hour by three lengths.

Next up was the famous match race with Seabiscuit, which was staged at Pimlico on November 1, 1938. The race was set at one and three-sixteenth miles, with both starters to carry 120 pounds. Because of War Admiral’s habits as a bad post horse, a walk-up start was agreed to in lieu of the use of a starting gate; the return concession was that, in deference to Seabiscuit’s known history of leg problems, the race would be called off if the track was other than fast. The purse was $15,000, winner-take-all.

Whether the match race proved that Seabiscuit was a better horse than War Admiral is debatable. There had already been hints in War Admiral’s career that he did not care much for the Pimlico surface; further, he was dropping back from the two miles of the Jockey Club Gold Cup to a shorter race, a feat generally held to be more difficult than stepping up from a shorter race to a longer one (as Seabiscuit was; his past race before the match had been at a mile.) But what the match did prove beyond the shadow of a doubt was that Conway on this occasion had been out-trained and outfoxed by “Silent Tom” Smith, who had secretly been training Seabiscuit for sharp early speed. Although Seabiscuit ordinarily preferred to come from off the pace, Smith recognized that allowing War Admiral to dictate the pace would be fatal. Thus, to nearly everyone’s surprise, Seabiscuit flew off like a scalded cat when the starter’s bell rang, leaving War Admiral to play catch-up. The Admiral tried, reaching even terms with Seabiscuit after six furlongs. But he could not pass the other horse however hard he tried and finally cracked at mid-stretch, leaving Seabiscuit to coast home by four lengths. The time, 1:56-2/5, was a new track record.

Both horses were eligible to the Rhode Island Handicap on November 12, and Riddle perhaps hoped for a rematch at that point. But Seabiscuit, who would have carried 130 pounds in the mile and one-eighth contest, stayed in the barn; as it turned out, the match race was his last start of the year. In his absence, War Admiral carried 127 pounds to a two and one-half length win over the tough handicapper Mucho Gusto, who had 115 pounds. That concluded War Admiral’s four-year-old season with nine wins from eleven starts but no title; Seabiscuit was voted both champion handicap male and Horse of the Year by all the major racing publications. (Years later, however, the two horses would be given a different ranking by an expert panel assembled by The Blood-Horse; War Admiral was ranked thirteenth among the best horses of the twentieth century, while Seabiscuit was ranked twenty-fifth.)

War Admiral was pointed towards a repeat win in the Widener Handicap at five and won a seven-furlong overnight race as a tightener but had to be scratched from the Widener itself due to illness. He was then tentatively slated for the Massachusetts Handicap but injured an ankle while in training. Although racing publications indicated that the injury probably occurred in mid-May, the horse was not officially retired until June 15, 1939. He had won twenty-one of twenty-six starts, and earned $273,240, a record that resulted in his induction into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1958. Four days after War Admiral’s retirement, George Conway, who had been in failing health, died.

Not only was War Admiral Man o’ War’s best son on the racetrack, but he was also Man o’ War’s best son as a sire. He was helped by the fact that Riddle had become more open to accepting outside mares than he had been with Man o’ War. One of the breeders who took advantage of this more open policy was Colonel E. R. Bradley. In truth, Colonel Bradley had made no great effort to secure the services of Man o’ War, and the one mare he had sent at farm manager Olin Gentry’s urging came back barren. Although the Fair Play line carried both stamina and soundness, qualities sometimes lacking in the Bradley horses, Bradley did not care for this blood because he felt that too many of the Fair Plays were sulkers who could not be relied upon to give their best effort in a race. War Admiral, however, strongly resembled his maternal grandsire Sweep, a horse Bradley had admired, and some reports indicate that Bradley liked the young stallion well enough to have made an offer to buy him. What is certain is that Bradley took up five seasons a year to him. He was well repaid for his faith in War Admiral, for he bred the first-rate filly Bee Mac from the stallion’s first crop and 1944 champion two-year-old filly Busher in the second. Sold to Louis B. Mayer early in her three-year-old season, Busher went on to become both champion three-year-old filly and Horse of the Year in 1945.

Busher’s heroics made her father the leading sire of 1945, and he was leading juvenile sire in 1948 when his son Blue Peter was voted the nation’s champion two-year-old colt and another son, Mr. Busher (as the name indicates, a full brother to Busher), was second in the division. War Admiral eventually sired 40 stakes winners, or eleven percent of his named foals. However, Blue Peter died before he could go to stud, and none of War Admiral’s other sons proved capable of succeeding him.

War Admiral’s name has been carried forward to future generations by his daughters, who produced 112 stakes winners between them. Among them were Iron Maiden, dam of the 1957 Kentucky Derby winner Iron Liege and second dam of the great Swaps; Wavy Navy, dam of 1970 champion juvenile male and important sire Hoist the Flag; Admiral’s Lady, dam of 1952 champion handicap male and good sire Crafty Admiral; Bee Mac, dam of the good racehorse and useful sire Better Self; Admiral’s Belle, dam of 1959 Preakness Stakes winner Royal Orbit; and Singing Grass, dam of 1954 Derby Stakes winner and English leading sire Never Say Die. Collectively, War Admiral’s daughters made him the leading American broodmare sire of 1962 and 1964.

The most important daughters of War Admiral, however, were those he sired on daughters of the great broodmare *La Troienne. Two, Searching and Striking, both founded major branches of the *La Troienne family, while Busher, who died after producing but five foals, had the high-class Jet Action to her credit. A fourth daughter, Busanda, produced Buckpasser, Horse of the Year in 1966 and a four-time leader of the American broodmare sire list despite his premature death at age 15.

Samuel Riddle had died in 1951, and in 1958 War Admiral needed a new home, as the portion of Faraway Farm on which he had been living was finally sold by the executors of Riddle’s estate. Several leading Kentucky breeders made offers regarding the aging stallion, but it was Preston Madden, the young grandson of the great breeder John E. Madden, who was given the honor of caring for War Admiral in the twilight of his life. The old horse bred thirteen mares in 1959 before being humanely destroyed due to an injury on October 30, 1959, at the age of twenty-five. Among the foals thus conceived was Belthazar, second dam of 1988 Horse of the Year Alysheba., who became the sixth Kentucky Derby winner to be foaled at Madden’s farm Hamburg Place. As for War Admiral himself, he now lies in honor at the Kentucky Horse Park, where a plaque marks his grave in the shadow of the statue of his mighty sire. It is a worthy honor for a worthy son.

Text © 2005 by Avalyn Hunter

Artwork © 2005 by Pat DeLong. Used by permission and may not be copied or distributed without the express consent of Pat DeLong. For information regarding purchases, reproductions, or licensing, please contact Pat DeLong at patdelongart@aol.com.