Desert Horses

Welcome to my horse blog, Desert Horses. We live in the desert southwest, near Palm Springs, CA, but board our horses up in our local mountains where it is cooler in the summer. I have 4 horses, all rescues. Here is the ranch up the mountains where the horses stay.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Secretariat's Belmont Stakes 1973

My family has a history with horses.  My great-uncle, Earl Knisley, trained throughbreds.  I used to go visit his barn at the back rows of Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, and Del Mar.  He used to walk his horses down to the ocean there at Del Mar and let them splash in the water.  I still have a couple of photos of him in the winner's circle with a couple of his horses.  This would have been in the late 50's and early 60's.  I also had an ancestor (I can't remember which one now, at 5:00 a.m.) who bred Morgan horses.  And, my own first cousin, Cindy, had a horse and showed him when she was in high school.  Then, my other cousin, Valerie, is an accomplished horsewoman herself and paints many of her beautiful paintings of horses.

But, NOTHING prepared me for the 1973 Belmont Stakes and Secretariat's run in that race.  I remember watching it at my grandparents' house in Arcadia with my newly-wedding husband.  It was one of the first horse races he had ever seen.  I'd seen a lot of races at that time and I'd been to the tracks myself, but I'd never witnessed a horse moving like Secretariat on that day.

In case you missed it, this was posted on Facebook this morning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfCMtaNiMDM  I still get chills watching it, don't you?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I watched it too - I'd seen many horses races before but none like that one. Sadly, I never watch horse racing any more - too much drugging and too many breakdowns.

In 1989, I had the chance to visit Claiborne Farm. My husband and I were directed to walk down the hill to Secretariat's paddock, and the groom actually went and got him and brought him out to us. I was able to stand next to him and pet him on the shoulder - the thrill of a lifetime! Unlike many of the other stallions, he was a perfect gentleman.

Cheryl Ann said...

Oh, wow~ What an exciting event! I only wish I'd been able to see him in person. Quad is a great-great grandson of his, through his sire, Bernstein.