Morvich—A Contestant for Man O'War's Place

O'NEIL SEVIER

An Account of the New Racing Marvel, Contrasting Him With His Predecessor

NO racing country appears to be entitled to see more than one "horse of the century" in the span of a human generation and, until now, none has. The British have not applied the formidable superlative we hitched to the name of Man O' War two years ago to any horse since Ormonde, and Ormonde flourished some thirty-five years ago. British racing men have thought from time to time of proposing six or seven brilliant successors, male and female, for Ormonde —notably the mares Pretty Polly and Sceptre, and the stallions Spearmint, Bayardo, Gay Crusader, Gainsborough and Buchan—in their thoroughbreds' pantheon with the world famous son of Bend Or, only to decide, after mature reflection, that none of them was altogether worthy of such honour. Having developed Sardanapale, a real wonder horse, whose amazing career was cut short in August, 1914, because the French found that they could not keep German soldiers out of Paris and race at the same time, ultra conservative France has settled comfortably to wait twenty years for another super horse.

Only one Botofago has thrust a bony head out of the ruck of thoroughbred racing in Argentina since the splendid Palermo course of Buenos Aires was thrown open, notwithstanding that the producers of Argentina, for the last thirty years, have been importing the best thoroughbred stallions and mares that could be obtained in France and Great Britain. Nor do the South Americans expect another Botofago for at least a quarter of a century. Thirty years separated Carbine and Eurythmic, the super horses of Australian racing.

Man O' War's Record

BUT it looks much as though American racing may have the great good fortune to have two undeniably great horses within the brief period of three or four years. The dust raised by Man O' War in his astonishingly fast races of 1920 culminating in his mile and a quarter gallop at Kenilworth Park for a purse of $75,000 and the $5,000 gold cup in October, 1920, in front of Sir Barton, had hardly settled before there came out of the west a stout little brown stallion called Morvich to do more as a two year old—in a money earning way— than Man O' War had done.

Man O' War failed to get through his first season of racing without knowing defeat. The son of Fair Play and Mahubah was unexpectedly beaten in August, 1919, at Saratoga, in a renewal of the Sanford Memorial stakes, by Upset, a Jersey bred son of Whisk Broom 2d., belonging to Harry Payne Whitney. Morvich won all of the eleven races of 1921 in which he started.

The success of his career as a two year old paralleled that of Man O' War with an occasional digression. In only one of his two year old races was Morvich seriously menaced. It looked very much as though he might have been beaten in the Saratoga Special by Whiskaway, another son of Whisk Broom, and also a Whitney horse, if Whiskaway had had fair racing luck. Morvich has recently been beaten, at Aqueduct, in a renewal of this same Whiskaway. His prestige has been somewhat dimmed in the minds of the unthoughtful in consequence of these defeats. But discriminating students of racing still regard him as the most formidable of this season's bidders for Man O' War's relinquished crown. That he will come back into his own, possibly, in the autumn, but certainly next year is as clear as anything is in thoroughbred horse racing.

Whiskaway, a fresh colt that had not, because of an attack of influenza, been put through a rigourous course of spring training, probably caught the little brown stallion stalking, in both the Carlton and the Kentucky Special. Morvich had been in hard training since the last week of February. From the middle of March on there was hardly a day that did not record some amazing speed stunt over the Jamaica course of the new wonder horse. Horse athletes, like men athletes, grow seedy when drilled too persistently over long periods. Intervals of comparative idleness must separate their sessions of intensive training for outstanding racing events.

Future Plans

MORVICH is now undergoing an unwinding process which will be followed by a fresh course of training for the distance racing of the autumn. He is not through with Whiskaway. He is to have another go at Thibodaux, the other colt that beat him at Latonia.

As a two year old Man O' War did not have a $40,000 Maryland Futurity to race in 1919, but Morvich did not happen to be eligible to start in the Belmont Park Futurity, a race of $45,000, in 1921. Man O' War won the Belmont Park Futurity of 1919 and Morvich won the Maryland Futurity inaugural of 1921. So the victory of Man O' War in the Belmont Park Futurity of 1919 may be said to have offset the success of Morvich in the Maryland Futurity of 1921 in the relation of the two races to the money winning records of Man O' War and his fleet successor. Man O' War begun his three year old career in 1920 by defeating Upset, Wildair and Blazes in a renewal of the Preakness, a $40,000 race, at Pimlico. Morvich began his three year old season on the 13th of May by defeating a smart field in a renewal of the Kentucky Derby, a $50,000 race, that attracted a field of the best three year olds then ready for the colours.

By winning the Kentucky Derby of the current season Morvich swelled the sum of his earnings to $160,000 and he would surely have won the Preakness if the renewals of the Derby and the Preakness had been separated by an interval of five or six days, as was the case in 1919, when Sir Barton won both, and 1920, when Man O' War might have won both if he had not been trained exclusively for the Preakness. Throughout last season Morvich was not seriously threatened by any of the colts that figured in the Preakness renewal.

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The privilege of seeing Man O' War race had been denied the American west. Failing to train early enough to start in the Derby renewal of 1920 which Paul Jones won with Upset second and On Watch third, he journeyed west of Pittsburgh only once—to Kenilworth Park for his race with Sir Barton. Colonel Matt J. Winn, the genius of Kentucky racing, after Man O' War had beaten Sir Barton in this $80,000 Kenilworth Park race sought to bring about a meeting between the champion three year old and Willis Sharpe Kilmer's distance running champion Exterminator, in a Latonia or Churchill Downs race of one mile and a half or two miles, for a purse of $50,000. But Samuel D. Riddle, Man O' War's owner, declared that his horse had done enough for the fame of one thoroughbred and it was time he was assigned to stud duty in Kentucky.

The failure of Man O' War to meet Exterminator in this race proposed by Colonel Winn was a matter of general regret. His admirers always will think that he would have beaten Exterminator in a race of one mile and a half or two miles, and, if he had done it, his record as a distance runner would have been unassailable.

Exterminator as a Rival

MORVICH will meet Exterminator either some time this coming autumn or next year provided he and Exterminator continue to train satisfactorily as seems probable and some enterprising race course manager offers a goodly purse for a race between them as, also, seems probable. Morvich so far has dodged no man's horse, no matter what the weight or track or weather conditions were on the days set for his appearances. Mr. Block has announced that he will sidestep no engagement of the future—after he shall have been brought back to proper racing form. Believing, in spite of Morvich's defeat at Latonia, that his colt is as good a distance runner as American racing has developed, as well as one of the fastest, Mr. Block will not rest satisfied until he shall have met Exterminator in a weight for age gallop that will thoroughly test his stamina.

The super horse of two and three years ago and his possible successor had, or have, many common attributes. There was never a faster or more willing horse than Man O' War. It was never necessary to lay the whip on the great chestnut. He gave up all he had voluntarily. He used to jump out in races he might have won without effort and break world's records for the sheer joy of running fast. Morvich is a horse of that sort. It is play for Morvich in a "speed sharpening" test to gallop three furlongs in thirty-three and a half or thirty-four seconds and finish out a half in forty-five seconds. Man O' War used to do that in 1919 and 1920. Before Man O' War came along to show what a wonderful thing nature could do in the moulding of a thoroughbred, American horsemen did not believe that race horses would ever run such dazzling halves as he used to run and as Morvich runs now. In disposition neither of these super horses had, or has, anything on the other. Man O' War was always as sweet tempered as a setter pup of seven months and as kindly disposed to all things that moved and breathed.

Morvich's outlook on life is like Man O' War's. Possibly it was because of his supreme confidence in men that Man O' War was such a racing machine. Having no fear of men, he gave men all he, had of speed as a matter of course. As Man O' War was in this direction, Morvich is.

Man O' War and Morvich are alike ineligible for registration in the so-called General Stud Book, Britain's Koran of the thoroughbred family.

Physically Man O' War and Morvich are as far apart as the poles. Man O' War when he raced, was lengthy, lean of flank and not attractively coupled. There was a lot of daylight under him. Some thought him too leggy. Morvich is short of back, close coupled, short legged. There is not enough of him behind the saddle for the pasting of a postage stamp. Man O' War was a strutting sixteen and a half hands giant. Morvich is about fifteen hands two inches in height. Man O' War had a great reach. He covered twenty-five feet at every stride, which is considerably above the average. The action of Morvich is short and rapid— "choppy" some call it. Man O' War had the conventional action of a distance runner. If Morvich was the sort of horse it looks as though he ought to be he would be a mere sprinter. It stretches him to cover twenty-one feet at a stride. Twenty feet is about his average. In Man O' War and Morvich, nature has demonstrated again that she can put the same qualities of speed and courage, that combine to make what men call great race horses, in radically dissimilar packages.

Geography and Thoroughbreds

GEOGRAPHY, apparently, has nothing to do with the production of great horses. Man O' War came from Kentucky's Blue Grass. Morvich hails from California. Morvich was bred by Adolph B. Spreckels at the Napa stud and raised on alfalfa and California hay, rather than on blue grass and timothy. Racing feels particularly grateful to fortune for having given to Mr. Spreckels the distinction of producing this new bidder for big honours. The distinction of having bred him is about all that Mr. Spreckels has got out of Morvich. Morvich was one of a group of two year olds Mr. Spreckels' trainer, William Carroll, brought east from the Napa stud a year ago last Spring. After he had shown blazing speed in a renewal of one of the minor Jamaica two year old stakes in May, 1921, Carroll sold him to Max Hirsch for $3,500. Carroll thought he was driving a shrewd bargain with Hirsch. There was a growth on Morvich's left knee that looked as though it might cause trouble, and soon. Hirsch, the developer of many a smart thoroughbred and a first rate judge, apparently did not like the looks of Morvich's knee. He quickly sold his purchase to Frederick Burlew, Morvich's present handler, for $7,000 and felt that he was doing a clever bit of davidharuming when he did it. Morvich still has that growth on his left knee. But he has yet to take his first lame step.

Mr. Spreckels is the patriarch of thoroughbred producers in California. He carries back to the times of the late James Ben Ali Haggin, Theodore Winters and the late William O'Brien Macdonough, the last named the importer from the Argentine of Ormonde. It was at Mr. Macdonough's Menlo Park farm that Ormonde stood through the last ten years of his life. A new thoroughbred producing industry is growing up around Mr. Spreckels' Napa stud that promises to expand until California shall have regained the place in production she had twenty-five years ago.