A Chip Off the Old Blockbuster : Risen Star, a Son of Secretariat, Storms to a 14 3/4-Length Victory

Risen Star should be called Secretariat Jr. now.

Fifteen years ago, Secretariat, a red horse who had brought racing out of the doldrums with brilliant victories in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, became the first Triple Crown winner in a quarter-century by smashing both his opponents and the clock in the Belmont Stakes. Secretariat won the Belmont by 31 lengths, and just as incredibly, his time of 2:24 for the 1 1/2 miles made confetti of the 2:26 3/5 record that Gallant Man had run in 1957.

Secretariat never raced beyond his 3-year-old season, being hustled off to stud in 1974 in a $6.08-million breeding syndication package that was the richest of its time.

As a sire, Secretariat has never been as good as he was a runner, but then, who would be? One of his sons, General Assembly, won the Travers at Saratoga, and one of his daughters, Lady’s Secret, was a controversial horse-of-the-year winner in 1986.

But now there is Risen Star. He looks more like his granddaddy, Bold Ruler, than he does his 18-year-old papa, but more importantly, he runs like Secretariat, and as the sun set on Belmont Park Saturday, there were more than a few long-of-tooth horsemen saying that this chocolate-colored colt is as good and perhaps even better than Big Red.

Risen Star’s Belmont was the biggest cakewalk the race has had since Secretariat. With jockey Eddie Delahoussaye’s whip an unneeded prop, Risen Star won the race by 14 3/4 lengths, the fourth-largest margin in the 120-year history of the stake, and he ran it in 2:26 2/5, faster than Gallant Man and slower only than Secretariat.

“This horse is as good as his daddy,” 60-year-old Jimmy Nichols said just outside the winner’s circle at Belmont Park. Nichols rode horses until 1979, and would have been Saturday’s No. 1 goat if Risen Star hadn’t won, because on Friday, in the troubled colt’s only workout since he won the Preakness three weeks ago, the 130-pound exercise rider allowed the horse to go 3 furlongs in near-record time of :33 3/5.

Louie Roussel, the 51% owner and 100% trainer of Risen Star, wasn’t happy. The workout concluded two weeks of unhappiness for Roussel, who introduced one veterinarian after another--five in all--to Risen Star after the colt kicked himself during a morning gallop, causing a swelling near his right front ankle and a lesion underneath.

The swelling had gone away, and Roussel was willing to run Risen Star despite the black spot beneath the surface, but the trainer wondered if the lickity-split workout hadn’t doomed their chances.

“We wanted to put some speed in him,” Nichols said late Saturday, “because we knew we were going to be laying right off the filly (Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors) in the race. I thought his time might have been :34 2/5, because this horse goes so easy, he can fool you. He’s got the longest stride I’ve seen on a horse in a long time, and he covers a lot of ground with no effort.”

Those who had handicapped the six-horse Belmont as a three-horse race--Risen Star, Winning Colors and Brian’s Time--were two horses off. Risen Star permitted Winning Colors to claim the lead for about three-quarters of a mile, but at the start of the far turn the winner moved past the roan filly without being asked. All Delahoussaye had to do was sit tight and wave the whip in his mount’s face the rest of the way.

“I could have ridden this horse today,” Nichols said. “All you had to do was hang on.”

One of the least-remembered facts of the latest Belmont will be that Kingpost, at 17-1 the longest price in the race, finished second, 2 lengths ahead of Brian’s Time. It was 11 lengths back to Cefis in fourth place, then Granacus and Winning Colors, 41 3/4 lengths behind Risen Star and a battle-worn filly.

The crowd of 55,558 didn’t know how to bet this Belmont. Risen Star was finally sent off the favorite, by less than $3,000 in the win pool, and paid $6.20, $4.80 and $3.80. Kingpost paid $11 and $3.80, Brian’s Time’s show price was $2.60 and the Risen Star-Kingpost exacta paid $108.20 for $2.

If not for a wide trip at the top of the stretch in the Kentucky Derby, Risen Star may have been a Triple Crown champion, just like Secretariat. Risen Star finished third at Churchill Downs.

“Maybe this puts an end to all the controversy,” Roussel said, referring to the brush job by Forty Niner that Winning Colors’ jockey, Gary Stevens, felt had dashed the filly’s chances in the Preakness. “This horse should have won the Triple Crown. I have a lot of respect for the way the filly ran in Kentucky, but we didn’t get the racing luck. We lost 6 or 7 lengths turning for home.”

Turning for home Saturday, the only question was what Risen Star’s winning margin would be. He earned $303,720 in outright purse money in the $506,100 race, and added the $1-million bonus that goes to the horse with the most points for high finishes in the Triple Crown races. Risen Star finished with 11 points, Winning Colors had 6 and Brian’s Time 4.

The result of a Kentucky mating between Secretariat and the His Majesty mare, Ribbon, Risen Star was first bought for $300,000 by Roussel, who then sold 49% of him to Ronnie Lamarque, a singing automobile dealer from Louisiana.

“This horse has heart, speed and agility, just like Secretariat,” Lamarque said. “Some day you’ll be able to use the five-letter word that starts with ‘g’ and ends with ‘t.’ At the mile pole today, we were just taking the filly’s name and address, and waiting for the breeding season.”

The frequently caustic New York racing fans were uncommonly courteous to the Winning Colors camp in the paddock, even though Stevens and the filly’s owner, Gene Klein, had accused the local favorite and five-time Belmont winner, Woody Stephens, of mayhem with Forty Niner in the Preakness.

“She just didn’t fire,” Stevens said of Winning Colors’ Belmont. “I have no excuses. She’s still a great filly in my book. She’s had a hard campaign. I think a mile and a half could be her game on her day, but she had two hard races before this.”

Wayne Lukas reported that Winning Colors came out of the Belmont in good shape. “She just didn’t run her race today,” Lukas said. “Those races took their toll on her. You know that the Triple Crown isn’t the prom; it takes its toll.”

Risen Star has won 8 of 11 starts, with two seconds and the third in the Derby. Delahoussaye first noted the colt’s special ability when he finished second behind him, aboard a horse named Word Pirate, in the Louisiana Derby at the Fair Grounds in March.

Shane Romero, a young Louisiana jockey, was riding Risen Star then. “I said to Louie (Roussel) then, that if he was ever going to make a jockey change, I’d be interested,” Delahoussaye said.

Back in California all last week, Delahoussaye was reading the reports about Risen Star’s ankle problem.

“I was sweating,” Delahoussaye said. “But I knew that if the horse was all right, he’d be tough to beat. The filly was lugging in in the stretch of the Preakness, and I had a feeling that she might not run that good of a race today.”

Delahoussaye won the Kentucky Derby with Gato Del Sol in 1982 and with Sunny’s Halo in 1983.

“This isn’t as big a thrill as winning the Derby,” he said Saturday. “For some reason, winning that race is real special to a rider. But this is still a great thrill. You can’t beat it. And it’s also part of history.”

There’s a strong chance that Risen Star isn’t finished giving history lessons. Secretariat Jr. is that good.

Horse Racing Notes

Louie Roussel said that he would consider the Travers at Saratoga for Risen Star, but it’s more likely that the colt’s next appearance might be the Super Derby at Louisiana Downs a month later. Both of those stakes are $1-million races. . . . Risen Star wasn’t nominated for the Breeders’ Cup, and it would cost his owners $360,000 to supplement him into the $3-million Classic at Churchill Downs in November. . . . Roussel repeated his plan to send Risen Star to trainer Charlie Whittingham in California for the colt’s 4-year-old season, only now there may be the possibility of retiring the horse to stud instead of running him in 1989. . . . Brian’s Time wound up the second choice in the betting, by about $25,000 over Winning Colors. . . . After Secretariat, the other margins greater than Risen Star’s in the Belmont were Count Fleet’s 25- length win in 1943 and Man o’ War’s 20-length victory in 1920. Count Fleet, a Triple Crown champion, faced only two opponents in the Belmont, and Man o’ War was challenged by just one. . . . Other stakes winners Saturday at Belmont were Personal Ensign by 7 lengths over Hometown Queen in the Hempstead Handicap, Gay Rights by 1 over Tejano in the Colin and Evening Kris by 1 3/4 over Perfect Spy in the Riva Ridge. Personal Ensign’s win was the eighth without a defeat for the 4-year-old filly.

BIGGEST WINNING MARGINS IN BELMONT

Year Horse Margin 1973 Secretariat 31 lengths 1943 Count Fleet 25 lengths 1920 Man O’ War 20 lengths 1988 Risen Star 14 3/4 lengths