Exterminator, (foaled 1915), American racehorse (Thoroughbred), a dependable and durable horse who won 50 of 100 races in eight seasons. Because of the length of his career and his extraordinary ability to win sprints and long-distance races under heavy weights, some horsemen considered him superior to Man o’ War, his greatest contemporary and doubtless the fastest American horse of the time. (The two never raced against each other.) A chestnut gelding sired by McGee (an English-bred stallion) out of Fair Empress and foaled in Kentucky, Exterminator raced with little success as a two-year-old, but in 1918 he won the Kentucky Derby. He finished second and third 17 times each.