50 years ago a legend was born
Rob Burchianti
Jockey Ron Turcotte walks Secretariat towards the winners circle after they captured the Triple Crown for 1973 by winning the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park, N.Y., June 9, 1973, before a crowd of 70,000 fans. (Photo by the Associated Press)
From time to time, with the coronavirus wiping out just about every national, collegiate and high school sporting event for the foreseeable future, we at the 蘑菇视频 will run a story from our archives.
I have uncovered, dusted off and revamped (mainly as in added some additional info I had taken out of the original because of space constraints) a column I ran 22 years ago because this seemed like the perfect time for it.
You see, 50 years ago as I am writing this, on March 30, 1970, a legend was born. No, it wasn鈥檛 your usual two-legged human being, it was a four-legged foal who would go on to do unimaginable things in the horse racing world.
Secretariat came into this world on March 30, 1970.
An article that appeared in a magazine in 1998 prompted me to write a column about that magnificent horse who was owned by Penny Chenery,聽 trained by Lucien Laurin and known as Big Red, on July 14 of that year. This is like a special-edition DVD in that it has some additional content not available in the original.
Here it is, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it:
Did you ever watch a sporting event unfold live on television that was so riveting and special that it sent chills down your spine, one that made you say 鈥渨ow鈥� to yourself after it happened?
A true sports fan knows this feeling, and TV Guide compiled its own list of such moments for its latest (July 11-17) issue.
As with any such list, there has been much debate as to what should鈥檝e been on and left off, and what should鈥檝e been ranked higher or lower.
There were a variety of sports mentioned, some with just one entry. The problem I have is with which moments were picked in certain sports.
The most glaring oversight came in horse racing. There was one entry, No. 21, on the colt-filly match race between Foolish Pleasure and Ruffian in 1975. The former won when the latter broke her right ankle during the race and eventually had to be put down.
How anyone could pick that tragic moment instead of Secretariat蘑菇视频 Triple Crown-clinching victory in the 1973 Belmont Stakes is a complete mystery.
Secretariat almost single-handedly revived horse racing with his tremendous performances in winning the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes.
Looking back at 1973 through the eyes of the 12-year-old sports fans, which I was back then, there was no warning as to what was about to transpire before the Kentucky Derby. Secretariat wasn鈥檛 considered that much more of a threat to win than a horse named Sham.
Secretariat got off to a slow start but burned up Churchill Downs once he kicked into gear, winning in a record time of 1:59.4. That still stands as the only Derby run in under two minutes.
Sham wound up second, just as he would in the Preakness two weeks later.
In that race Secretariat again broke out of the gate slowly and was last early on. He then made one of the most dramatic moves in Triple Crown history, bolting from last to first right after the first turn. It was so remarkable had you watched it in a movie you would鈥檝e thought, come on, that蘑菇视频 so fake, no horse could make up that much ground that fast.
But this was Big Red.
While such a bold move may have worn out another horse, Secretariat had plenty in the tank to hold off a futile charge by Sham to win in a controversial time of 154.4. A malfunctioning infield timer led to the much debated finishing time that was determined by other means (Note, in 2012 after an extensive review of the race videotape at a special meeting, Secretariat蘑菇视频 winning time was officially adjusted to 1:53, a Preakness record).
By now, Secretariat had caught the attention of the entire country, which hadn鈥檛 seen a Triple Crown winner in 25 years. He was on the cover of national magazines, was the talk of radio and television, and looked like a solid bet to complete the sweep in the Belmont.
Almost everyone was pulling for him to win.
The big guy didn鈥檛 disappoint.
The Belmont field consisted of only five horses, including Sham, who would try once more to beat his superior rival.
Most of you know what happened next. Secretariat simply turned in one of the most spectacular individual performances in the history of sports.
Sham went out right away to challenge at the beginning of the race, but he was far over-matched on this day. He burned himself out trying to keep pace with a legend and eventually faded to last place, over 45 lengths behind.
The poor guy never had a chance.
By the one-mile mark Secretariat was ahead by seven lengths. A quarter of a mile later he was up by 20 and still pulling away. It was said there were some horse experts watching who felt this was a huge mistake, that Big Red would burn himself out at the ridiculous pace he was on.
But, amazingly, he had plenty left in the tank.
When Secretariat hit the top of the stretch, he was all alone, leading already by an incredible 28 lengths.
With the crowd emitting a deafening roar, the big guy came home and hit the tape an unbelievable 31 lengths in front of Twice A Prince.
Secretariat didn鈥檛 break the Belmont Stakes record, he annihilated it. His blistering time of 2:24 knocked an astounding 2.6 seconds off the previous mark held by Gallant Man in 1957.
To put that in perspective, Secretariat would鈥檝e beaten Gallant Man by about 13 lengths.
I was completely captivated by the moment as I watched Secretariat roar down the stretch, his muscles churning, his strides chewing up ground in huge chunks at a time, the crowd, the announcer 鈥� it was all so overwhelming.
Some forget the jockey who had the honor of riding Secretariat was Ron Turcotte. On this afternoon, however, he was just along for the ride, literally.
That, perhaps, is one of the most amazing things about Secretariat蘑菇视频 sparkling performance. Anyone who knows horse racing knows the jockey holds a whip and usually uses it liberally coming down the stretch to get the most out of his mount.
Turcotte needed no whip, though. He never touched Secretariat with it during the Belmont. Big Red just took off when the gates opened and never looked back.
Secretariat needed no coaxing, no urging. He just ran for the love of running. He was into it. It seemed as if the crowd蘑菇视频 roar gave him an adrenaline rush that allowed him to run even faster.
No one has come close to Secretariat蘑菇视频 performance, but there has been one extremely lopsided race in the Belmont Stakes since then.
It came in 1988 when a horse named Risen Star, who had finished third when he got pinned in early at the Kentucky Derby and had won the Preakness, galloped out to a 14 3/4-length victory.
I remember the race announcer Dave Johnson, as Risen Star came down the stretch all by himself, yell, 鈥淗e looks like his daddy at this point!鈥�
That蘑菇视频 right. Risen Star was the son of Secretariat.
I often think that some day I鈥檇 like to find out where Risen Star is so that maybe I could see him in person.
I always wanted to see his father up close, just once, just to see the horse who turned in that spectacular performance, the horse who made me a horse racing fan for life. I wanted to look in his eyes to see if I could catch a glimpse of what made him run like he did that day on June 9, 1973, when he ran like no other horse ever did, or probably ever will.
Alas, Secretariat passed away several years ago, in 1989 at the age of 19. My wife told me she heard that during the autopsy they found he had an unusually large heart.
Somehow, I knew that all along.
Rob Burchianti can be reached at rburchianti@heraldstandard.com or on Twitter (@rvburch).