A match made in heaven...

It's the 50th anniversary of the famed 1955 match race between Nashua and Swaps, and bloodhorse.com marks the day with excerpts from Nashua: Thoroughbred Legends #8 and Swaps: Thoroughbred Legends #14. Though Swaps beat Nashua in the Kentucky Derby that year, Nashua took the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. Match races were still fairly popular in the '5os, and the classic elements of well-bred Easterner (Nashua) vs. upstart Westerner (Swaps) had the public clamoring for the match.

Both were great horses, with Nashua named Horse of the Year for 1955 and Swaps, Horse of the Year for 1956. Both set or equaled nine track records. Both earned some pretty big bucks. Both are in the Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame.

One might say they were "well-matched." And they only raced each other twice: the Kentucky Derby and the match race.

Surely, if you want to know who won the match race, you'll go visit Bloodhorse or the Louisville Courier-Journal to find the answer.

Yes, it's that wily librarian trick of pointing you to the resources, but empowering you by letting you use them yourselves. We're good that way.