Horse Racing Fantasy Community

On January 12th, 2009, the Baseball Writers Association of America will announce that Rickey Henderson, in his first year of eligibility, has been selected for membership in the Hall of Fame.He will join other all-time greats, not just other Hall-of-Famers, but other first ballot Hall-of-Famers, and not just other first ballot Hall-of-Famers, but the exclusive fraternity of Hall-of-Famers that receive a near-unanimous vote, guys like Ruth, Cobb, Williams, Mantle, Koufax, and Ripken, though I could go on. To me, whether or not he gets that unanimous vote is not as interesting as the fact that Henderson is one of those rare players that accomplished a record that will never even be approached, let alone broken. The man is first on the all-time stolen bases list, most people know that. He's second on the all-time walks list, and most people know is near the top in that category, as well. But the man walked to lead off an inning almost 800 times in his career! To put that into perspective, there are over 50 Hall-of-Famers that didn't walk 800 times in their entire careers! And not the more obscure Hall-of-Famers, either. We're talking about guys like Ryne Sandberg, Lou Brock, and Roberto Clemente! No player that ever plays the game will ever lead off an inning with a walk anywhere close to 800 times in their career. In fact, I'd be shocked to see anyone reach 500. Remember now, that's not 500 walks for a career, that's 500 walks to lead off an inning! No way. That's a record that won't be approached, ever.

You know where I'm going with this, of course. That's very much like SECRETARIAT and his indescribably brilliant performance in the 1973 Belmont Stakes. Everything about that performance is simply unlike anything ever seen in the history of horseracing. Let's see, where to begin? There are 12 furlongs in the Belmont Stakes, which of course make up the total distance of a mile and a half. SECRETARIAT led the race at every point of call, which were the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, mile, mile and a quarter poles, and of course the finish line. That means that we can go back and reference exactly how fast each of his eighth fractions were. That leads me to the first thing SECRETARIAT did in that race that no horse will ever do again: not a single one of his 12 fractions was slower than 12&4/5th's! That's right, not one of them! If you don't know much about racing fractions, as I didn't before I started learning about that horse, trust me, if you want to be amazed, do yourself a little research.

I'm going to interrupt here and explain that there were many things he did that day that will never be seen again, so many that I can't do justice to them here, so I'll be short the rest of the way, just so I can get the stuff down:

His mile and an eighth fraction was 1:46&1, which at the time tied the world record for that distance! Never again will a horse tie a world record like that with three furlongs still to run! Never.

When he passed the mile and a quarter pole, his fraction was 1:59 flat. This is amazing for two reasons, the first because that fraction was faster than his entire race in the Kentucky Derby, and he set the record in that race. The second, more impressive reason is that that fraction was a full second faster than the fastest mile and a quarter race ever run at Belmont Park!

His final time of 2:24 was so incredible that A) in all the time since, not a single horse has run the Belmont Stakes faster than 2:26! And in case you didn't know (because I didn't when I first started reading about him), two seconds in horseracing is a long, long time, and it conservatively translates to 10 full lengths at least! The Belmont Stakes is run exclusively by three-year-olds, and three-year-old colts are not fully mature. They're in the late stages of adolescence and don't become fully mature physically until at least age 4. What makes that 2:24 time so incomprehensible is that no horse on dirt, anywhere on earth in all the years since, has ever posted a time better than 2:25&4/5th's. And remember, SECRETARIAT accomplished this feat without having been asked by jockey Ron Turcotte. Do not lessen the fact that the Belmont was also his third classic distance race in five weeks, and that he was three years old when he did it, either.

All of that is great, but I saved the most amazing thing for last. After SECRETARIAT crossed the finish line his jockey started pulling him up, as is customary after the end of a race. In other words, he was actively slowing him down. However, clockers kept timing him after he crossed the finish line, and his 13th furlong was 13&3/5th's, which fixed his unofficial mile and 5/8th's time at 2:37&3/5th's. That time doesn't really mean anything until you realize that A) the official world record, which still stands today, for that distance is 2:38&1/5th, and B) the horse that set that official record was a fully mature Swaps in 1956! So in other words, SECRETARIAT unofficially set a world-record while being slowed down, and he did it when he hadn't even reached the summer of his three-year-old season!
As I said, there is simply nothing like it, and once you consider all those points mentioned above, it's very easy to see why people who actually witnessed him run that day refer to it as an almost supernatural experience. Very easy!