1936 Conformation, Man o' War
This conformation shot was taken toward the end of Man o’ War’s stud career. Retiring from racing after his 1920 three-year-old season, he stood at stud for 22 years.
The first commentary below is featured in Turf writer B. K. Beckwith’s 1967 compilation Step and Go Together. The second, written by Frank Talmadge Phelps, appeared in the March 1960 issue of Turf and Sport Digest.
“Man o’ War possessed the most impressive dignity of any horse I’ve ever known…
"And there he stood, his head held high, looking over the crowd, and somehow you knew instinctively he was the greatest of them all. He was a being apart. It was almost a tangible thing, an aura of untouchable regality. You would no more have thought of walking up and putting a hand on him than you would of casually poking the Queen of England in the ribs.”
- Brainerd Kellogg Beckwith, 19671
“He remained a magnificent specimen, even in old age when his flaming coat had faded and the dip in his back had deepened. He was a massive horse, weighing 1,370 pounds in his later years. And age could not hide his sweeping musculature, spacious chest and wide-forking, clean-cut underpinning; nor could it dim the ‘look of eagles’ in his eyes and the pride with which he held his head high.
"He had a presence of commanding majesty that automatically caused hats to be doffed and voices to be lowered when he appeared.”
- Frank Talmadge Phelps, 19602
1. B. K. Beckwith (1967). Step and Go Together. South Brunswick, New Jersey: A.S. Barnes, p. 60
2. Frank Talmadge Phelps (March 1960). “He Wuz de Mostes’ Hoss,” Turf and Sport Digest