A Look Back at Two Memorable Belmonts

There was no Triple Crown hanging in the balance and no super horse waiting to be annointed at Saturday’s Belmont Stakes. Just the memory of two of the greatest races ever.

All you had to do was close your eyes to see Secretariat running all alone to make a 31-length shambles of the race 15 years ago. Blink again and see Alydar and Affirmed thundering down the stretch side by side to climax one of the great thoroughbred rivalries in history a decade ago.

In 1973, Secretariat was a top-heavy favorite to become the ninth Triple Crown winner and the first in 25 years. He had started his 3-year-old campaign with impeccible credentials, already syndicated for a hefty $6 million and the reigning Horse of the Year, the first 2-year-old to gain that honor, and had done nothing to change that perception.

The chestnut colt won the Derby and Preakness handily. Now the horse his fans called Big Red was ready for the longest race of the series, the 1 1/2-mile Belmont, called the Test of Champions because of its gruelling distance.

Only four horses--Twice A Prince, My Gallant, Pvt. Smiles and Sham -- challenged him in the Belmont--eliminating show wagering. There was good reason for the small field. Secretariat was so dominating in the Derby and Preakness that he was scaring off the competition.

At Churchill Downs, he was timed in 1:59 2/5 for 1 miles, setting a Derby record that still stands. At Pimlico, did the same thing in the Preakness, covering the 1 3-16 miles in a record 1:53 2-5.

Still, there were doubters. Sham had finished just 2 1/2 lengths behind Secretariat in the Derby and trailed by the same distance in the Preakness. So he was sent out to challenge the big, handsome colt one more time in the final Triple Crown event. The challenge, however, did not last very long.

Secretariat burst out of Belmont’s starting gate with a vengeance, as if determined to answer any lingering questions in a hurry. Quickly, he pulled away, a blur of spindly thoroughbred legs carrying his huge, powerful body over the track.

Sham stayed with him gamely for a half-mile, trailing by only a head at that point. Then Secretariat went into overdrive and at a mile, his lead was seven lengths. A quarter-mile later, he was 20 lengths in front, then 28 and finally a phenomenal 31 lengths in front.

Jockey Ron Turcotte was little more than a passenger on this memorable trip, along for the ride in one of the most astounding races in history.

When Turcotte displayed jockey instincts, listening for the hoofbeats of the competition at the five-eighths pole, he heard nothing. When he snuck a peek over his shoulder in the backstretch to look for the other horses, he saw nothing. The rest of the field was too far away to be heard or seen.

“He’s just the complete horse,” Turcotte marvelled after the race. “I let him run a bit early to get position to the first turn. Once he got inside of Sham, he wasn’t about to give anything away. He pulled away on his own down the backstretch and I never asked him to. He was just running his race.”

Secretariat’s Belmont was timed in an unheard of 2:26 3/5, another track record. It completed a monumental Triple Crown sweep, each race won in record time, each punctuating Secretariat’s stature as one of the all-time giants of his sport.

Five years after Secretariat ran away with the Belmont to certify his Triple Crown claim, Alydar and Affirmed took one of sport’s fiercest rivalries right to the finish line of the same classic race.

They charged into the 3-year-old series in 1978 as the acknowledged class of their class. They had run against each other six times during their 2-year-old campaign, Affirmed winning four of the tests and Alydar taking the other two. Now they were ready to move center stage for the Triple Crown series.

On the first Saturday in May, they staged a brilliant duel at Churchill Downs. Jockey Steve Cauthen kept Affirmed in check for six furlongs, then moved him up for the lead. When he got there, he found his old pal, Alydar, who was charging from far behind through the stretch. At the finish, Affirmed had a 1 1/2-length margin, not a runaway, but sufficient. The time was 2:01 1-5.

Two weeks later, the two colts staged a rerun in the Preakness.

Again, Affirmed was up front, leading the race from the start and slipping back for only an instant. Again, Jorge Velasquez aboard Alydar, came from behind, driving from sixth to fourth to second. They were that way through the stretch, separated by a head, and went under the wire the same way, just a neck apart.

That set the stage for the Belmont. Affirmed was bidding to become the 11th Triple Crown winner. Alydar, the underdog, would chase his rival one more time. Three other horses -- Darby Creek Road, Judge Advocate and Noontime Spender -- were entered, but they were largely window dressing. This showdown, like the Derby and Preakness before it, would be between Affirmed and Alydar.

Once again, Affirmed charged for the lead from the start. Judge Advocate made a brief run at him but that was nothing more than a tease for the real duel which lay ahead. By the half-mile pole, Alydar was second, one length behind. At three-quarters of a mile, Affirmed’s lead was a half-length. At a mile, it was a head.

Unlike Turcotte’s almost casual hand-ride through Secretariat’s lonesome stretch run, Cauthen and Velasquez went to their whips, urging every last bit of strength from their mounts.

For an instant, Alydar nudged in front, but only for an instant. Almost immediately, Affirmed regained the lead and they went that way to the wire.

The race ended with Affirmed the winner, officially by a head but probably by less than that. The margin was about 31 lengths less than Secretariat’s Belmont victory, but the race was every bit as memorable.