Famous Horses in The History of Horse Racing

To discover the incredible stories of some of the most famous race horses in history, simply continue reading to learn about the legendary horse Frankel, Man O’ War, Phar Lap, Secretariat and Seabiscuit.

Famous Horses in The History of Horse Racing:

Frankel:

Frankel is one of the worlds very best horses. He is a British Thoroughbred racehorse and the highest rated race horse in the world. In the fourteen races which he participated, he won every time, making him worth an estimated £100 million! He is highly sought after for his offspring. Foals of Frankel are going at a very high rate due to his award winning accomplishments.

To learn more about the history and amazing accomplishments of Frankel, click here.

Secretariat:

Secretariat was an American thoroughbred racehorse who won the Triple Crown in 1973. At the time Secretariat was the first racehorse to win the Triple Crown in 25 years. Secretariat is also one of the most famous horses in history. In fact Secretariat still holds numerous dirt track records over multiple distances, which makes Secretariat one of the fastest race horses in history.

The fact that Secretariat was able to win difficult races by distances of 32 lengths was surprising at the time as Secretariat was owned by a woman who had little experience racing horses. Whereas most thoroughbred horses who won major races were bred from well known, experienced stables. Secretertiat’s owner Penny Chenery, took ownership of Secretariat when her father became too ill to manage his thoroughbred farm. In 2010 a feature film was released which told the story of Secretariat and Penny Chenery, which starred Diane Lane.

Man O’ War:

Man O’ War was another American thoroughbred who became a household name. In fact, during his professional racing career Man O’ War only lost a single race. Where he started several head lengths back. As he still finished the race in second position and only lost the race by a single head length, many individuals argue that Man O’ War deserved to win the race.

In 2006 man O’ War was voted the greatest race horse who ever lived for the 86th year in a row. Which definitely makes Man O’ War one of the most famous horses in history.

Seabiscuit:

Seabiscuit was a famous thoroughbred American racehorse which became a symbol of hope during the Great Depression. While Seabiscuit was far smaller than most of his major rivals and was forced to carry heavy loads in order to compete in major races, Seabiscuit was still able to win a wide variety of important races. Furthermore in the 1940s Seabiscuit won the most prize money out of any race horse, which was a difficult feat.

One of Seabiscuit’s most impressive feats was beating a Triple Crown winner War Admiral by four full lengths. During a two horse race which was organized at Pimlico.

Just like Secretariat Seabiscuit’s story was also turned into a major film, which was released in 2013. Seabiscuit starred Jeff Bridges, Tobey Maguire and Chris Cooper.

Phar Lap:

Unlike the other race horses which feature on this list, Phar Lap was not foaled in the USA and was born in New Zealand. Phar Lap was trained and raced in Australia and won Australia’s most watched thoroughbred race, the Melbourne Cup. One of Phar Lap’s strengths was that he could excel at races of numerous distances, which ranged from 1400 meters to 36oo meters. Phar Lap was also taller than most thoroughbred race horses and stood at a height of 1.74 meters.

If you’re interested in another of the thoroughbred race horses which are listed above, it’s well worth learning more information about their careers. If you’re interested in learning about Seabiscuit or Secretariat’s careers, it’s also well worth watching the movies Seabiscuit and Secretariat.

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