Salvator (1886–1909) was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse considered by many to be one of the best racers during the latter half of the 19th century.

James Ben Ali Haggin had purchased his dam, Salina, and shipped her to his 44,000-acre (180 km2) Rancho Del Paso with Salvator in utero.

Haggin had made his money in the California Gold Rush of 1849, so much of it he was suddenly one of the wealthiest men in America, and he used his new wealth to establish the biggest horse breeding operations in world history.

Aside from the thousands of grazing acres he owned in Arizona, New Mexico and Southern California, he headquartered at the Rancho del Paso near the present-day city of Sacramento.

He bought breeding horses from every state that bred fine thoroughbreds, as well as shipping them in from Ireland, Australia and England.

In the fall of 1887, Haggin's Eastern trainer, Matthew Byrnes, and jockey Edward "Snapper" Garrison arrived at the ranch to choose the best young horses to take back to New York.

Because he had bucked his shins in one of his trials while training in California, Salvator did not start racing until August of his two-year-old season.

He made his debut in the Junior Champion Stakes against a seasoned colt, Proctor Knott (sired by the great Luke Blackburn).

Proctor Knott, who'd already run six races (and who in the following year would lose the Kentucky Derby to Spokane in what seemed a dead heat), was the one horse Salvator could never beat.

Salvator had been sitting on the sidelines for the beginning of the year, but in his first race as a four-year-old, he faced Tenny in the 7th running of the Suburban Handicap, then taking place at Sheepshead Bay.

'I think I beat you,' said Garrison.” Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote a poem about the race called How Salvator Won.

Salvator then raced the clock, shattering the old record for the mile with a time of 1:35 1/2 under jockey Marty Bergen.