More on Secretariat's Belmont

Found this article from 1998 from the Baltimore Sun marking the 25th anniversary of his Belmont win. This quoted jockeys who were "lucky" enough to get slaughtered by the big red comet:

Ask those who rode against him.

"Greatest horse I ever saw," said Laffit Pincay Jr., still racing at age 51.

"I watched his tail a lot of times," said Angel Cordero Jr., a member of the National Jockeys Hall of Fame. "I feel honored to have been whipped by Secretariat. It's like getting your butt beat by Muhammad Ali."

Twenty-five years later, Braulio Baeza can still hear the hooves crashing past as Big Red churned by him in the Belmont.

And then the horse just vanished. Baeza's mount ran second that day, losing by the length of a football field.

"By the time my horse got to where Secretariat had been, the dust had already settled," said Baeza, another Hall of Famer. "Beat him? Only with a jet."

And this is good:

Far back, Cordero, Baeza and their mounts struggled to stay within camera range. Cordero actually believed they were gaining on the leader.

"Every time I looked up, Secretariat looked smaller and smaller, which is what happens when a horse gets tired -- he looks scrunched up," Cordero said. "So I'd yell over to Baeza, 'We're getting close -- look how little he is.' "

At the sixteenth-pole, Baeza shouted back: "Forget it. He just finished the race."

_____

From two years ago is this very nice column about CBS track announcer Chic Anderson's famous call of the race, which is almost as famous as the race itself.

Anderson, who was a low-key announcer, captured the unbelievable performance perfectly.

Anderson, of course, was blessed with a great event. No horse had won the Triple Crown in 25 years when Secretariat made his bid on June 9, 1973, and the anticipation was feverish.

But Anderson didn't exploit it. He never got overwrought or wordy. He let the tone and timbre of his voice - not its volume - convey the excitement. Even if you'd never seen a horse race, you'd have sensed this was something special.

When the gate opened that afternoon, there was a slight edge to Anderson's voice as he noted how Secretariat had grabbed good position along the rail. Eventually the legendary horse and rival Sham pulled away from the small field and Anderson suggested it had become "almost a match race."

Then, as the two leaders neared the backside turn, Secretariat began to open a gap. Anderson's voice lifted an octave or two as he commenced the concluding half of what still remains the best sporting event I've ever witnessed, live or on TV.

I Headed Over to Carson City

to attend the grand opening of a new casino called Bodines, at the intersection of Highway 395 and Highway 50. The Carano family who owns the Eldorado Hotel and Casino in Reno are partners in the new venture.





I normally wouldn't go to a grand opening of anything, but I did today because of who else was going to be there. Top thoroughbred trainer Bob Baffert (left), who trained Silver Charm and Real Quiet to win the 1997 and 1998 Kentucky Derby and Preakness respectively but both horses came up short in the Belmont, was there as I came around the front of the building. Baffert is easy to spot with his white hair. He was talking to the media as well as talking to fans. I got a chance to shake his hand and speak with him for a bit. He seems to be a very nice, very approachable person.




Also on hand for the ribbon-cutting ceremony was famous jockey Laffit Pincay (right), who rode many top horses including Affirmed and Secretariat's old rival, Sham. I didn't get a chance to speak with him. He still looks good for 61. Until he was passed by Russell Baze, Pincay won more races than any other jockey, with 9,530 wins. He retired five years ago.

Anyway, three other jockeys were supposed to be there, including Mike Smith and Kent Desormeaux (the jockey of this year's Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown), but I didn't see them at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. As I was eating hors d'oeurves, which were damned good, I heard somebody say the jockeys were eating and they were going to be out in "about ten minutes." Well, I hung around with other people outside for probably a half an hour, and by that time, Baffert and Pincay had already gone back inside. I had gone inside the casino, which isn't very big, but I didn't see anybody familiar. There was, however, a restaurant which was above the casino area, but I wasn't going to snoop around there and get into trouble.



I went back outside, and in the meantime picked up a free cap with the Bodines logo on it. I had wished I had had something for Baffert and Pincay to have signed. I sat around a few minutes, then I went back inside the casino again. As I was walking near the restaurant where the jockeys ate, I saw what appeared to be a jockey heading towards the men's room. I thought, no, it couldn't be...but I went towards the men's room and saw about five or six people who were standing there waiting. Yep, the person I saw go into the men's room was none other than Kent Desormeaux. I decided to hang out with the other people, including a couple of the casino staff, to wait for him to come out. After a few minutes, which seemed to take forever, Desormeaux came out and met with us and signed autographs. I took a picture of him with a couple of other people, though the picture is slightly blurred. I gave him my red Sharpie and my cap, and wished him good luck in the Belmont. Then Kent (I don't want to type his last name because it is too hard to spell correctly) asked me if I knew "Mike Pegram." I said I hadn't heard of him. Kent said, "You know Real Quiet." I said yes and said I met his trainer Bob Baffert outside. Kent told me, and this was interesting, that Pegram, the co-owner of this casino, was the owner of Real Quiet, and told me I should come there often. Then he signed the cap in big, red letters with his name, and the name of Big Brown on it. I thanked him. It was great he was so nice to do that. Pegram's racing connections explain why these racing greats came out to Carson City.




I never did meet Mike Smith or David Flores, however.