Before you settle in to watch the Belmont tomorrow (may all the horses come home home safely), you need to see the 1973 Belmont, possibly the greatest race run by any horse, anywhere. (The only competition would be Dr. Fager's record-breaking mile and Seabiscuit vs. War Admiral.)
Ron Turcotte later said that Secretariat wasn't running as fast as he could have. One can only imagine, given that his Belmont and world record time for the mile-and-a-half is still standing after 41 years.
Obligatory musical note about tomorrow: one of the horses entered is named Tonalist, whose odds are currently 8-1. You could bet on him. Maybe he has a sibling named Atonalist?
25 lengths?!?!?! Love the announcer: "This is a record that might stand forever". Well, 41 years at least. :-)
ReplyDeleteGo California Chrome!
A racehorse so famous that even I have heard of him.
ReplyDeleteI have heard the distance between Secretariat and the next horse described as everything from 25 to 31 lengths. An amazing victory, whatever the exact margin.
ReplyDeleteWell damn. California Chrome got bunched on the rail out of the gate and just ran out of gas trying to make up the distance he was behind going in to the final turn.
ReplyDeleteAffirmed with Steve Cauthen aboard won the last TC in 1978, that record is safe for another year.