Ever wonder where term upset came from? I mean the "winning underdog" meaning not the "queazy stomach" meaning. The great racehorse Man o' War ran 21 races and won 20 of them. He lost the 1919 Sanford Memorial Stakes due to a bad start, but the winning horse was named Upset.
Great story, but too good to be true. "In late 2002, researcher George Thompson, using the newly available tools of full-text online searching of the New York Times databases, turned up a string of sporting usages of upset dating back to [1877]. There are numerous uses of the term in 19th century sportswriting, proving beyond a doubt that the term was well-established by the time Man o’ War lost his only race. Upset did not father a term, he was just well named."
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