remembrance of Secretariat

It was 50 years ago, a Wednesday in late October and Eddie Maple was spending his day riding at Aqueduct. It was supposed to be just another routine day at the track. But then the seventh race happened. The stewards disqualified Ron Turcotte's mount and handed him a five-day suspension for careless riding. In those days, there were no appeals, no dragging things through court. The suspension started immediately, which meant that Secretariat would need a rider for what would be his final career race, the 1973 GII Canadian International...

The 50 years that have passed since Secretariat's Herculean victory in the Belmont Stakes have taken a toll on the number of the 67,605 souls who came to witness history and saw a day sanctified by the racing gods. But then, unlike Secretariat, we are mere mortals. I am one of the dwindling number of those who were present on that sweltering day in June 1973. The memory of that magnificent day remains, intensely vibrant and charged with emotion, but it is now more a mosaic than a painting, with...