Two-Horse Race Is a One-Horse Show

In the fourth race at the Kenilworth Jockey Club track in Windsor, Ontario, 79 years ago today, there were only two horses entered:

* Sir Barton, a 4-year-old owned by J.K.L. Ross.

* Man o’ War, a 3-year-old, owned by Samuel Ridder.

Only two horses, but what a huge race!

It was the first great match race of the century, staged to settle the question: Which was the greatest horse in North America?

Sir Barton had been bought for $10,000 by Ross, a retired Canadian Navy Commander. In 1919, the horse had been the first to win what would later be called racing’s Triple Crown.

Man o’ War was 11-0 as a 3-year-old and had won the Preakness and Belmont. Riddle had not entered him in the Kentucky Derby.

The race, at a mile and a quarter, was called the Kenilworth Gold Cup, with a purse of $75,000. Clarence Klummer rode Man o’ War, Frank Keough was aboard Sir Barton.

The two horses lined up behind a ribbon, since the starting gate had yet to be invented.

Sir Barton, on the rail, broke away first. But Man o’ War steadily ate up the distance between them and not only passed Sir Barton, leaving him far behind entering the stretch, but kicking dirt in his face in the process. Man o’ War won by eight lengths, in 2:03.

Both horses had equipment failures. Man o’ War won with a broken stirrup and Sir Barton lost all four shoes.

Also on this date: In 1986, Dave Henderson of the Red Sox, one strike away from being the final out in what would have been a pennant-clinching win by the Angels in Game 5 of the American League championship series, homered to give the Red Sox the lead in the top of the ninth and Boston went on to win, 7-6, in the 11th on Henderson’s sacrifice fly. Boston went on to win the series. . . . In 1979, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird made their NBA debuts. Johnson scored 26 points in a 103-102 Laker win over the Clippers at San Diego, and Bird had 14 and 10 rebounds in a 114-106 Celtic victory over Houston at Boston. . . . In 1929, USC beat Washington in football, 48-0, and Stanford beat UCLA, 57-0.