Posted on 10/09/2010 7:39:38 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
I saw Secretariat win the Kent Derby
Saw him up close too.
So glad I went
I'm impressed...
Are you going to see the movie?
Thank you! Sunds like a worthy movie, (at long last).
I loved the horse.
1973 was an awesome year...it just so happens to be the year I was born ;).
Loved ‘Seabiscuit’ and am looking forward to this one. Horses are such magnificent creatures to watch run.
I’m looking forward to it too.
You’re welcome
Saw it this afternoon.
Good movie.
Thanks!
We bided our time n a mom and pop grocery store/gas station and talked with some of the locals. One of them was a farm hand at Clayborne Farms. He asked us, “Hey, you wanna see Secretariat?” He took us to the farm, so Tom and I got to spend 10-15 minutes with him. Now that I think about it, I may have a picture. I'm gonna have to look for that.
Great story!
The movie was great!
Very upbeat and happy.
The end race was VERY well done.
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Good job!
What a totally sane article! I am happy to see Mr. Ebert in such good form.
*Ping
Wonderful news. =]
Of course!
I saved a glass from the mint julip i drank. I gave the glass to my sister who loves horses. The glass has list of all the Derby winners to date.
2 weeks ago our local newspaper ran a feature written by a local reporter about how he bought Secretariat’s gransdson after he was retired from race course circuit. He fell in love with this horse when he was asked to cover him in a year when the descendents of numerous great horses were hitting the track. This colt was special — even carries the faint star on the forehead — but he never really tore up the race track. The owner refused to sell, as long as he did well enough to pay his feed bill, but when he tore (or strained) a muscle the owner decided to sell to our reporter.
Secretariat’s grandson is now running free in a field in our county. Attempts to turn him into an ordinary riding horse have been mixed. He threw our intrepid reporter on his first ride, and the reporter is now nursing 5 cracked ribs.
I would post the link and picture, but I can’t remember the title and I can’t find it with a search. It ran in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. I had wanted to send the link to my graddaghter and DIL who are both horse crazy. :(
I’ll keep looking, and I will go see this movie.
My daughter kept her horses and passed them on to her daughter. I have three granddaughters who collect those plastic horses and 2 who actually ride. The only horse that my oldest daughter ever lost was the white stallion that was rearing on his hind legs and pawing the air. A leg broke and even the best glue that the Lawrence Radiation Lab at Berkeley could provide failed to repair it. Of course that was before Gorrilla Glue, or Super Glue was invented.
He was racing at the same time as Ruffian, the "Queen of the Fillies," who'd won all ten of her races, including the Fillies' Triple Crown. In July 1975, a match race was arranged between the horses. They had the same jockey—Jacinto Vásquez, who chose to ride Ruffian, with Braulio Baeza taking over on Foolish Pleasure. This race became more than a horse race. It became a highly publicized "battle of the sexes" contest, similar to the tennis matches between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs that occurred about the same time. Thousands of fans gathered at the track, and the race was also televised. While on the lead, Ruffian broke the sesamoid bones in her leg. She continued to run, further damaging her leg, for another hundred yards, trying to finish the race. Post-surgery, she did even further damage to herself in panic, and finally had to be euthanized. Technically, Foolish Pleasure had "won", and it was several more years before other owners and trainers would risk entering females into the Kentucky Derby and other male-dominated races.
It is unfortunate because all anyone remembers is that Ruffian broke her leg and had to be euthanized. The public blamed Foolish Pleasure, although I think any "blame" belongs to the organizers of the match race. FP went on to take 2nd in the Belmont and the Preakness, which is better than any Derby winners have done in recent years.
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