Chasing Greatest Is Own Reward

Secretariat the greatest race horse of all time?

I have no serious quarrel with that. Won the Triple Crown in 1973. Ran the fastest Kentucky Derby ever. Ran a hole in the wind at the Preakness that year. Really set the record but ran so fast there the clocks couldn’t keep up. Won the Belmont by 31 lengths!

Man O’War? Ran 21 races, won 20 of them. Skipped the 1920 Kentucky Derby but won the Preakness and won the Belmont by 20 lengths.

My personal choice would be Citation. Won the Triple Crown in 1948, laid out a year, tried to come back, as it were, on three legs. Lost to Noor but gave him 22 pounds. Finally came back at age 6 to win the Hollywood Gold Cup.

Maybe you like Affirmed? Won the Triple Crown in 1978, then finished up his career with seven consecutive victories, including the Hollywood Gold Cup, the Santa Anita Handicap and the Jockey Club Gold Cup back East. Ran anywhere.

Others vote for Spectacular Bid, Count Fleet, Native Dancer.

These guys are all portraits on the wall, statues in the paddock. But what of the cast of characters that pushed these notables into historic performances? Where are they in turf annals?

You ever hear of Sham? You would have if there had been no Secretariat. Sham chased Secretariat to the wire in all his Triple Crown races. If you can call a 31-length defeat a “chase.” Sham threw in the towel after that, but you have to know Sham was beaten by only two lengths in Secretariat’s winning Kentucky Derby and Preakness. After being bumped at the start and going around the entire field.

Affirmed your choice? Well, what about Alydar? He got beat by a length in the Derby by Affirmed, a neck in the Preakness and a head in the Belmont. Talk about being a heartbeat away from greatness! Alydar finally beat Affirmed in the Travers at Saratoga. Well, Affirmed finished first but got disqualified for bumping, and Alydar was promoted to winner.

I bring all this up because down here at Del Mar this month is another horse who was dealt one card shy of a royal flush by history.

Everybody knows Silver Charm, the magic horse who came within a nose of winning the Triple Crown in ‘97, right?

Well, he had to get by a gray called Free House every time to do it.

Free House was leading the Derby going into the homestretch. He finished third, three lengths back.

In the Preakness, though, he was beaten by only a head by the Charm.

And, in the Santa Anita Derby earlier in the year, he beat Silver Charm by a head.

The poet John Greenleaf Whittier would have understood perfectly:

“Of all sad words of tongue or pen,

“The saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’ ”

Free House came from the other side of the tracks, genealogically speaking. His owner, John Toffan, who made his fortune in British Columbia gold mines, had picked up a stud horse, Smokester, so undistinguished, his stud fee was nothing. All you needed was a fervid mare. Smokester was the wallflower in the breeding shed’s stag line most of his early career. But now, of course, he is as in demand as Leonardo DiCaprio. Bring the mare and a check for $20,000.

They won’t be naming any stakes races after Free House. When you place and show in the Triple Crown, you might as well run fourth and seventh for all the notice you get.

It’s almost unfair because everybody remembers both Dempsey and Tunney, Ali and Frazier, even the runner-up at Wimbledon.

You have to remember a horse called Upset was second to Man O’War three times before finally beating the great Big Red in the only race he ever lost.

Alydar almost got even with Affirmed by becoming a better sire.

But Free House will have to wait to get his revenge if he can. He was to have met Silver Charm in the Pacific Classic down here on Aug. 15, but the Charm has come down with an undiagnosed illness that will sideline him for awhile.

But Touch Gold, who beat both of them in the Belmont, figures to be in the field.

To have been in the money in two of the three Triple Crown races and in the photo in the third is a turf feat. Even some horses who won two legs of the Triple Crown could not get in the money in the third.

A case could be made these horses chased the winners into becoming great.

I mean, you don’t think Red Grange became the “Galloping Ghost” because some redneck end with blood in his eye and murder in his heart scared him into high gear? You don’t think Joe Louis became a great puncher and Sugar Ray Robinson a great boxer because they looked across the ring and saw one ton of hate taking aim on them?

Maybe Secretariat took off in the Belmont because he thought, “Oh, oh, there’s that damn Sham again. I better put a lot of daylight between me and him or I’ll hear his footsteps in the stretch again.”

Actually, Toffan should be getting accustomed to the role. In 1991, his horse, Mane Minister, finished third in each of the Triple Crown races. He’s in a rut.

Still, it’s horses like his that brought out the greatness in the great ones. Even Michael Jordan needs a challenge. Karl Malone knows exactly what Free House and Sham must feel like.

* NAMING NAMES: The trainers involved in the clenbuterol probe include Vienna and West. C12