Good luck California Chrome. Here's a little history about the greatest race horse, ever: http://goo.gl/2GLMc "In winning the 99th Kentucky Derby, Secretariat accomplished the unheard of in a mile and a quarter race -- he ran successively faster quarters (25 1/5 seconds, 24, 23 4/5, 23 2/5 and 23)." In the third jewel of the Triple Crown "Big Red" and challenger Sham ran the 1/2 mi. in a suicidal 46 1/5, and a mile and a 1/4 in 1:59. Faster than the Derby. :-)

My father thought Secretariat should have been named "Male Athlete of the Year" in 1973.

I saw Damascus run once. Well, not really. He sort of trotted around Delaware Park and the rest of the pack ran like heck to see who could come in second.

It was a nice race. I was a little disappointed to see some of California Chrome's supporters grumbling that Tonalist and the 2nd and third place finishers hadn't run the other two legs of the Triple Crown and thus were more "rested". A little perspective: Tonalist won in 2:28.52, Secretariat won in 2:24. Almost 5 seconds faster and had no one to race with the last 30 lengths. We still await the next "Super Horse".

And many winners of the Derby and the Preakness Stakes wisely choose not to run their horse in all three. If you win any one of them, that's really good enough to make you millions of dollars for years to come. Winning two is a certainy of income. But if you lose the (drastically different) Belmont, then the last thing that your horse did was ... to lose. And, what did the winning horse do? It beat your horse, so your horse is now a "loser." Fame is very fleeting.

Tomorrow is the day, the chase for the Triple Crown begins - will we see another 'Superhorse?'
Some of the fastest 1-1/4 mile horse races on record:

Secretariat (1973 Kentucky Derby) - 1:59.40 (1:59-2/5)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV4drumXbA4
Authentic (2020 Breeders' Cup Classic) - 1:59.60
Monarchos (2001 Kentucky Derby) - 1:59.97
Northern Dancer (1964 Kentucky Derby) - 2:00-flat
Flightline (2022 Breeders' Cup Classic) - 2:00.05

And there I was thinking of Carl Yastrzemski

TC is very difficult no matter the sport, best of luck to them!

I really don't care about the horses. "Another Mint Julep, please ... *hic!*"

There's only one Triple Crown in the British Isles and it's in Rugby Union between Ireland, England, Wales & Scotland. If anyone wins their 3 matches, they have the triple crown. It's been eclipsed recently as more countries are involved, making it a Grand Slam.

Lol, I never cared much for the julips. When I was a poor student in the Churchill Downs infield in 1967-68 all I could afford was cheap beer.

Pretty good race - Mage in 2:01.57. Fifty years without another candidate for "Super_Horse."

There was an article in my local rag about how horse racing is losing its appeal: https://www.pilotonline.com/opinion/...x7u-story.html

The author suggests that the reason that folks are becoming less enamored of sports that involve exploiting animals (I'm paraphrasing here). Regarding horse racing specifically, I'm more inclined to think that it's because the days when horses were part of day to day life for most people are fading further and further into the past.

Shortly before I was born, my father was working the farm with horses and, when I was a young 'un, there was still straw in the stables from those days. (He bought a tractor right about the time I came into the world.)

Just in case we run out of fuel and electricity, I keep an appaloosa and two percherons parked in the barn--well actually, I let them out twice a day, and harvest a few cubic feet of manure for the compost once a day.

Tripple Crown Lite is a good supplemental feed for them.

Since the author is "senior vice president with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals" that's kind of just what she has to say.

It was a good race. I hope all the animals came out of it healthy. No 'Super Horse' in sight. It will be interesting to see which horses go on to the longer races.
Mystik Dan in a head nod in 2:03:34.