Out of these three whos the best?

Question

Man o' War standing 16.2 or Secretariat standing 16.2 hands or Ruffian standing nearly 17 hands. In your Opinion who was the best for me its Ruffian she was an amazing filly.

Answer 1

It's really hard to compare horses of different generations! I only know what I have read about Man O' War, whereas I actually got to see Secretariat and Ruffian. I also have a hard time comparing colts and fillys, they hardly ever compete against each other here in the US ( it's much more common in the UK for them to compete).

Another thing that makes comparison tough is the shortened careers of race horses these days. But with all that said... my heart goes with Secretariat. His Belmont win ( by 31 lengths!) is a feat I am fairly certain I will never see again.

I AM anxious to see what kind of year Rags to Riches will have this year! If she can come back as good as she was last year... HER name will be up there with your list of greats. Her 2007 Belmont was one for the ages!

Answer 2

I my self love Secretariat, just because. My fav. racehorse is Seattle Slew, though.

Answer 3

I think it's either Seattle Slew or Secretariat that stands as best.  Man o' War is third in my book.  Secretariat is the standard against which all other horses are judged, though.

Answer 4

Ruffian is taller but no matter what Secretariat is the all time best horse.

Answer 5

Man o' War lost only one race, to a horse named Upset at a track called Saratoga

Answer 6

secretariat,hands down

Answer 7

Barbaro, (sorry, but he is #1)  to me...

then Ruffian, Man o' War, Secretariat.

Answer 8

ruffian we would never know what she would be. secretariat's heart was much bigger then his Heigth a true freak of nature. man o' war carried such weight and still won handily. if i had to choose with my gut i would go with Secretariat watch the Belmont tape it still gives me shivers down my spine. what a horse!

Answer 9

Ruffian for sure!

Answer 10

I think they're the 3 best horses in American history.  The debate is usually just between Man O War and Secretariat, but I'm glad to see you've included Ruffian as an option.  They were all exceptional horses and even if they raced each other, I'm not sure that we could say that one was better than the others.  As for my personal choice, Ruffian will always be the greatest horse ever.

Ruffian did everything effortlessly.  She consistently won by huge margins, setting or equaling the stakes or track record in every race.  No horse ever came close to her.  She was ahead at every point of call in every race length from a sprint to a mile and a half.  Given some competition, there's no telling how fast she could have run.

Neither of the other two horses displayed that sort of effortlessness.  Man O War won easily in many races, including when he beat the first Triple Crown winner Sir Barton, and he won a race by 100 lengths.  But he also did lose one race to Upset (after he'd beaten Upset about 5 other times).  Secretariat was capable of amazing things... he, too, ran his mile and a half race effortlessly.  But he too lost a couple races.  Man O War is like Ruffian in that they each never really faced competition that equalled them.  Secretariat had a tough foe in Sham... if poor Sham had been born a year earlier or later he could have been a Triple Crown winner too... the same for Alydar.

In picking between the 3, I have to go with Ruffian just for the sheer effortlessness and the perfect record over every distance.  And it's interesting to note that Ruffian in her 3 longest races wouldn't switch to her right lead in the stretch... horses will switch leads when they get tired and normal horses get tired by the end of races that are 10-12 furlongs... Ruffian never got tired... Ruffian wasn't normal.  Ruffian was perfect.

Answer 11

SECRETARIAT.....BY A LAND-SLIDE