Man o' War all-time greats with an "almost unbelievably brilliant performance" before a crowd of 25,000. At odds of 1-20, he faced only one rival, the well-regarded colt Donnaconna. Man o' War led from the start and Kummer let him run freely at the top of the stretch, allowing Man o' War to draw away by 20 lengths. Although eased in the final furlong, Man o' War set a world record of 2:14, beating the previous standard set in England by over two seconds and beating Sir Barton's American record by over three seconds. This time stood as the American record until 1961
Man o' War country. The race was originally intended to be a face off between the three great horses of the time: Man o' War, Sir Barton and Exterminator. However, the owners of Sir Barton and Man o' War agreed to a distance of miles, which was too short for Exterminator to run his best, and agreed to a weight-for-age format, under which the older Exterminator would concede weight to Man o' War. Therefore, Exterminator was not entered, and in fact raced that same day on a different track. Now essentially a match race, the advantage shifted to Man o' War, whose front-running