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Originally Posted by Merlinsky
Nah the 'ducked Exterminator' bit actually isn't legitimate as a flaw for Man O'War based on what we now know. I highly recommend the book by Dorothy Ours for MOW info and I believe that's where I read this (I'm not at home right now and don't have the book with me to double check but I'm pretty sure about it). It's actually a misconception that's been going on for awhile. Exterminator could've been in the match race with Sir Barton and MOW but there was a caveat, he would only be in it if the race were longer (not that they liked the location either but it was mainly a distance question). Once the other two owners settled on preferred distance, it meant Exterminator would be at a disadvantage. Now if you wanted them to face each other at 1 1/2 to 2 miles we can argue the best horse (except we're not really comparing these other great horses for their ability to get 2 miles) but his owners were definitely not going to go up against MOW and Sir Barton at anything like 1 1/4 or lower. They made that decision so I'll argue that Exterminator actually ducked MOW, not the other way around.
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Yeah the book did say that, just finished reading it last week myself. Great read it was too.