Allen Jerkins: FINALLY, an Obituary I Can Write About

The past two or three weeks around here have displayed a drought of prominent enough people who merit inclusion on this blog when they died. There were some lesser-known actors and musicians who died, a few businessmen who were allegedly famous but I had never heard of, and a sprinkling of rather obscure sports figures.


There is one sports figure who may not be that well-known to younger people, but the man who was nicknamed "The Giant Killer," racing hall of fame trainer Allen Jerkins, has died. He was 85 years old.

Secretariat fans remember Jerkins for having trained two horses who defeated Secretariat in a pair of upsets following his storied sweep of the 1973 Triple Crown. Not to take anything from Jerkins' ability to condition horses, but the fact remains he got a lucky break when his horse Onion defeated Big Red in the Whitney Stakes because the champ had come down with a virus and should have been scratched. Another horse he trained, Prove Out, also defeated the great horse in the Woodward because Secretariat was put in as a last-minute replacement when trainer Lucien Laurin scratched Riva Ridge because of the sloppy track.

In other words, Jerkins got damned lucky because Laurin messed up. Because of Laurin's mistakes, Jerkins got the Eclipse Award for best trainer of 1973, an award that should have gone to Laurin.

Years earlier, Jerkins pulled a major upset when his horse Beau Purple defeated another racing great, five-time Horse of the Year Kelso. I should say upsets, for this horse beat Kelso three times.

Other horses he trained included Devil His Due and Sky Beauty.

More details are at this NYT link.

Miscellaneous Whatever

The USSC has rejected a challenge to the Clinton era's "don't ask, don't tell" military policy.
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Although yours truly made mention of the James Auchincloss matter a few days ago, and even AP picked it up a little bit, it took days for sites like Gawker to run with it with stuff like this:

Oh well, "His willingness to talk about famous relatives has made him something of a persona non grata in Kennedy circles over the years." They must be pretty close to cutting him out of the family entirely. First it was the talking to the media, now it's the child porn. Only one more strike, James!

If the family really cuts him out, it won't matter. The media will go apeshit over yet another Kennedy "scandal," even if Auchincloss isn't a Kennedy except by proxy.

If the allegations are true, it is a hell of a note to disgrace the family in the worst possible way.
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I wrote at length about Secretariat yesterday, but I didn't hear about this tragic story at Belmont Park last month when a four-year-old colt, City On Line, crashed into the statue of Secretariat and fractured a leg and had to be euthanized.

What is truly ironical about this is the horse was trained by Hall of Famer H. Allen Jerkins, the man whose horses Onion and Prove Out defeated Secretariat in 1973 in the Whitney and the Woodward stakes races, respectively.

It was almost as if Big Red got his revenge.