A homebred of Samuel D. Riddle, his sire was Man o' War who was ranked #1 in the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century.
After trainer George Conway's death on June 20, 1939, War Relic's race conditioning was taken over by Walter A. Carter.
In 1941, the three-year-old War Relic won several top races, including the Massachusetts Handicap, and ran second by a nose to U.S.
Triple Crown champion Whirlaway in the 1941 Saranac Handicap but defeated him in that year's Narragansett Special.
War Relic died at age twenty-five in 1963 and was buried at his owner's Faraway Farm near Lexington, Kentucky.