BELMONT STAKES : Turcotte Recalls Day Big Red Flew

An oil company once used a flying red horse as its symbol, but the real red horse who flew was Secretariat, in winning the Belmont Stakes 17 years ago.

To mark the occasion, Belmont Park has brought back Ron Turcotte, the jockey who rode Secretariat in that electrifying performance on June 9, 1973. Secretariat not only swept the Triple Crown by winning the Belmont, but also won the 1 1/2-mile race by 31 lengths in 2 minutes 24 seconds, demolishing by 2 3/5 seconds the American record that Gallant Man had set in 1957.

Turcotte, much heavier and still a paraplegic in a wheelchair as the result of a spill at Belmont in 1978, sat in the walking ring Thursday as track officials drew the field for Saturday’s 122nd Belmont. Turcotte, 49, gets around, and almost completed the Triple Crown swing this year. He also showed up at Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby week, driving a specially constructed camper from his home in Canada.

“I still pray for you to get well,” trainer Laz Barrera told Turcotte in Kentucky.

On Thursday here, Brad Telias, a TV announcer, asked Turcotte if Secretariat’s Belmont might be the greatest race a horse has ever run.

“It was the greatest performance in the history of sports,” Turcotte said.

Trainer Carl Nafzger, whose Derby winner, Unbridled, is the 4-5 favorite in Saturday’s Belmont, came by and squatted next to Turcotte’s wheelchair for about 15 minutes. Nafzger once used Turcotte to ride some of his horses. In 1973, the 48-year-old trainer was just starting out in the thoroughbred business, handling a string of horses at obscure Santa Fe Downs in Albuquerque, N.M.

“Cheap horses, Carl?” Nafzger was asked.

“I’ve never run cheap horses,” Nafzger said, laughing. “I’ve only claimed four horses in my life, but those were broodmares. Oh, I’ve run plenty of claiming horses, but I’ve always tried to get rid of them as soon as I could.”

Nafzger would settle for half the Herculean performance of Secretariat in Unbridled’s Belmont. He saw the rerun of the 1973 Belmont at a breakfast Thursday.

“I got the same chills watching the rerun that I got when I first saw the race from Santa Fe,” said Nafzger, up from his crouch and now standing at Turcotte’s side. “Ron didn’t even have to move with the horse. He just sat there all the way around. I don’t know how fast Secretariat could have run if he had really ridden him hard.”

Unbridled may be at the head of the 3-year-old class with Summer Squall, the Preakness winner, but for the Squall-less Belmont, Nafzger’s colt is exactly in the middle, having drawn No. 5 in a nine-horse field.

“Perfect,” the trainer said.

Post positions for a 1 1/2-mile race are usually of little consequence, although Land Rush, whom Nafzger suspects will be asked to run with Thirty Six Red early, could have drawn better than the outside. Land Rush will have to break alertly--something he doesn’t always do--and cross in front of horses if his front-running pattern is to materialize.

Here is the Belmont lineup, with jockeys and morning-line odds:

Thirty Six Red, Mike Smith, 8-1; Go and Go, Michael Kinane, 12-1; Baron de Vaux, Jean Cruguet, 30-1; Country Day, Chris Antley, 6-1; Unbridled, Craig Perret, 4-5; Video Ranger, Jose Santos, 8-1; Hawaiian Pass, Art Madrid, 30-1; Yonder, Jerry Bailey, 7-2; and Land Rush, Angel Cordero, 12-1.

All of the horses will carry 126 pounds in the $686,000 race, with $411,600 going to the winner. Another $1 million--the Triple Crown bonus--will go to Frances Genter, the 92-year-old Bloomington (Minn.) woman who owns Unbridled, if he merely finishes the race. Unbridled, who was second in the Preakness, has compiled eight points for high finishes in the first two Triple Crown races.

Summer Squall also has eight points, but because he needs Lasix to control a bleeding problem and New York prohibits racing on medication, the colt isn’t running. A horse must run in all three races to qualify for the bonus, and only Unbridled and Land Rush have that distinction this year.

Unbridled also bled, as a 2-year-old, and he has run on Lasix ever since. Nafzger is confident he can effectively dehydrate the horse and run him without the diuretic Saturday.

Nafzger’s share of the bonus would probably be $100,000, a trainer’s standard 10% of the purse.

“I don’t think the bonus has any bearing on the race,” Nafzger said. “Just winning the Derby has already given this horse a value of about $12 million. But if he ran a bad race and lost the Belmont, his value might drop to $8 million. That makes it a lousy excuse to go for $1 million. You don’t get ahead in this world trading four for one.”

Nafzger has watched many more Belmonts than just Secretariat’s.

“I think the best horse wins this race more than any other race,” he said. “Every Belmont winner has been a horse that’s had class.”

Lately, the Belmont winner has been a horse regularly stabled in New York. The only exceptions in the last 11 years were Bet Twice in 1987 and Risen Star in 1988.

The local horses in this field are Thirty Six Red, Yonder and Country Day.

Horse Racing Notes

Unbridled, Thirty Six Red and Land Rush are all Lasix horses who will have to run without medication Saturday. . . . Allan Dragone, the new chairman of the New York Racing Assn., which operates Belmont Park, Aqueduct and Saratoga, said the Triple Crown tracks are considering changes in the bonus system and welcomed suggestions. John Russell, who trains at Hollywood Park, has one. “Instead of a 5-3-1 point system for first, second and third, make it 5-4-3-2-1 for first through fifth,” he said. “It works in yacht racing and they’ve been doing it for years.”

Carl Nafzger still finds it hard to believe that he won the Kentucky Derby. “I still look at that Derby poster of Unbridled and wonder, ‘Who’s the trainer that’s got that good-looking horse,’ ” he said. . . . The weather is expected to be warm and dry for the Belmont.

In other races Saturday at Belmont, Rhythm will be running in the $100,000 Colin at 1 1/8 miles, and his stablemate, Adjudicating, is entered in the $100,000 Riva Ridge at seven furlongs. In the $200,000 Hempstead Handicap, a 1 1/8-mile race for fillies and mares, Tactile will carry high weight of 117 pounds, one more than Tis Juliet. . . . In Thursday’s races here, Safely Kept improved her record to 15 victories in 18 tries with a three-length win over Diva’s Debut in the $81,900 Genuine Risk Stakes. Safely Kept, ridden by Craig Perret, ran six furlongs in 1:10 1/5, easily beating only three opponents.