According to data from the U.S. Census, the population of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in 1920 was merely 13,181. On a warm, sunny August afternoon of that year, however, the population of Saratoga Race Course swelled to almost three times that amount as 35,000 turned out to see horse racing's "Man" of the hour contest the 31st Miller Stakes, a prep for the upcoming Travers Stakes.
As soon as the third race on the card was in the books, the crowd began gathering in the grassy tree-lined saddling area to get a glimpse of Sam Riddle's Man o' War. Surrounded by a dozen Pinkerton guards to keep the hundreds-deep crowd encircling him at bay, the big red colt became a bit fractious.
Big crowds were nothing new to Man o' War, but what was new was the jockey on his back. Ridden in all of his sophomore races by Clarence Kummer, the son of Fair Play would be under the guidance of an up-and-coming young jockey, Earl Sande. Kummer had been injured when the juvenile filly he was riding in a race at Aqueduct came to grief.
Not yet the household name he would become, Sande wasn't chopped liver. The former broncobuster from South Dakota knew a thing or two about handling horses and was already riding for some big East Coast outfits.
Louis Feustel also faced the unknown of a new jockey. The trainer was confident in his charge—Man o' War worked nine furlongs four days earlier in 1:49 2/5 (Saratoga's track record was Sunbriar's 1:50), only 1/5 slower than his North American record set in the Dwyer Stakes a month earlier.
Feustel's instructions to Sande were simple and direct: Don't let the colt extend himself any more than necessary. Easy for him to say as Sande would find out.
Two rivals dared to beard the lion: the familiar face of George Loft's hard-trying Donnacona, fresh off a victory in the Mount Kisco Stakes at Empire City, and Thomas Monahan's King Albert. The odds and the assigned weights reflected the disparity of talent. Man o' War, the highweight at 131 pounds, was sent off at 1-30, while Donnacona (119) was 15-1 and King Albert (114) was 100-1.
To mitigate the unsettling situation that stirred up Man o' War in the paddock, Feustel had a stablehand walk Man o' War to the starting barrier. With all three at the post, starter Mars Cassidy maintained order by having assistants hold the contestants until the barrier flew up and the field set forth on the 1 3/16-mile journey.
For Man o' War, it was a matter of the song remaining the same. Speed combined with a 28-foot stride is a hard weapon to counteract, and after two furlongs Sande was being put to the test to see whether he could deliver on Feustel's instruction.
Had there been a remote with a mute button to silence the boisterous crowd, cheering their golden boy, the only sound above the pounding hooves might have been Sande's constantly yelling, "Whoa!" as he tried to contain Man o' War's pent-up power aching for release.
Never out of a gallop, Man o' War won by six lengths over Donnacona, with King Albert another four in arrears.
Following the race, Sande offered a fresh perspective on Man o' War's greatness when he told the Brooklyn Eagle, "I never felt anything like that horse in my life. Why, he is a regular machine. He strides farther than anything I ever rode and does it so handily that you would not think he was running at all."
