Secretariat in the Belmont - specifically, the second half of the race - was probably the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen in sports.
It was like watching a missile take off. He was accelerating!!!
Definitely. Also in his Preakness, in the first turn he charged from last to first, passing the others as if they were standing still!
So he was running against two-legged horses? Or was it six-legged ones?
:rolleyes:
That’s a fascinating read.
I was at the 1972 Belmont and saw Secretariat race. It was literally one of the most amazing moments of my life! The horse just took off and kept running faster. During the last half of the race, the jockey was not using the whip or doing anything but sitting there.
I overheard someone say yesterday “That race was fixed. The horse won by six lengths. That’s impossible.” I corrected him and told him about Secretariat’s win. It was amazing.
Forget American Pharaoh’s time, these are the correct answers. Actually, really, just the second one.
The only way you’re going to get people to pay attention to the Belmont who otherwise wouldn’t is if a horse has a chance to win the Triple Crown. It doesn’t matter if the horse wins or not; as long as a horse has won the Derby and the Preakness, there’s Triple Crown hype, so people watch. Once the race is over you’ve already gotten the interest and viewers. So logically, all the con jobs should be whenever a horse wins the first two legs of the Crown. It’s irrelevant if they finish it.
If anything, having no horse win it since Affirmed just makes the hype greater, since it’s now a bigger deal that a horse actually did it, whereas when Affirmed did it he was the third horse in five years to pull it off. American Pharaoh finally pulling it off makes it less special if another horse does the trick in 2016.
As to Secretariat, that wasn’t a horse, it was a genetic freak. We could have horse racing for a thousand years more and never see a horse like that. If you read descriptions of his races, the recurring theme is always “I didn’t know horses could do that.”
Wow Annie, amazing! I heard a lot of people kept their $2 bet tickets because they’d only have won another 60 cents. Did you have one?
And, I do believe that was 1973 not 1972. Minor nit pick. But way cool that you were there!
Whoops! My type. And no, I didn’t bet. But it was so truly amazing to see that horse run.