What is the largest margin a horse has ever won a race by?

Question

Is secretarait's belmont win the largest margin a horse has ever won by? just wondering...

Answer 1

with other horses in the race...yes you are right. there was a match race with ruffian (which was WAY back in the day)when she broke down and didnt finish the race....so the other horse won going away while she had to quit.

in that instance, they dont count it by a winning margin, it was by default. another horse MUST cross the finish line in order in get a winning margin. basically and techinally, you are correct

Answer 2

It was Man O' War, in a race against a horse named Hoodwink, in which Man O' War won by more than 100 lengths.    I think Secretariat's Belmont Stakes was the second-largest winning margin ever, at 31 lengths.

Answer 3

no I understand there was a race that a horse won by about 100 lengths...it was man o war beating hoodwinked in a 15/8 mile stake race...

Answer 4

Technically the largest winning margin was the mighty Eclipse in about 1770.  In one of his races the phrase "Eclipse first, the rest nowhere" was used.  By definition, a horse that was "nowhere" was 240 yards or more behind the winner.  If we get into some maths, there are 220 yards in a furlong (1/8 of a mile), so we are talking about a distance of greater than a furlong.  At a rough guess, converting that into lengths, I'd guess that we are talking about over 100 lengths.

A wide margin indeed!

Answer 5

Man O' War beat Hoodwink by 100 lengths as has been mentioned. If there have been larger margins it was for more obscure races with less famous horses so it would not be widely known.

Answer 6

the largest margin was by man o war, winning by 100 lenghts

secretariat's 31 lenghts margin is a record for a mile and a half at any track.

Answer 7

horse's have been left at the gates alot.. so by the whole track.. thet's by "how much"..

Answer 8

In Aus we had a Steeplechaser who went by as 'Roughneck'. He was 40 lengths ahead of second place when he hit the line in the Great Eastern Steeple, 1978.

And he very nearly didn't make it either, cantering over the line on wobbly legs...

I don't whether that counts, but thats just my 0.02c.

Answer 9

Man O' War won the Kennilworth Gold Cup against Triple Crown Winner Sir Barton by 100 lengths.

There have been other noteworthy "parades".  In the 1974 (mis)match race of the fine racemares Miss Musket and Filly Triple Crown winner Chris Evert, Chris Evert tow-roped Miss Musket by 50 lengths.  

Count Fleet, who went on to win the Triple Crown, won the Walden Stakes at Pimlico by 30 lengths, but could have won by more if his jockey Johnny Longden hadn't been easing him through the stretch.  Count Fleet went on to win the Belmont Stakes the next year by 25 lengths.

Back in the old-time days of racing, there was something known as "distancing" a rival in racing.  This involved beating a rival by at least a furlong (eighth of a mile), in which case the horses so beaten were considered to have finished "nowhere," completely unplaced.  Famously, the foundation sire Eclipse won a bet for his owner, who bet a bookie that he could name the exact order of finish.  The bookie took the bet, and Eclipse's owner named the order of the finish:  "Eclipse first, the rest nowhere!"