Sham's injury in '73 Belmont

[mortebella]

Ok, my memory is pretty shabby - but I’ve been having some conversations with people about the Sham/Secretariat rivalry and trying to explain my take on it (hey, I was 11 at the time, cut me a little slack :D) I also have done a search in this forum already, but couldn’t turn anything up, specific to this.There is a book on Amazon that was fairly recently released, but -as WAS discussed on here - that book has some holes. I’m not into rushing out and buying it, based on the reviews. I’m really looking for some specific information. My memory is this - Sham DID fracture something in the Belmont, a sesmoid maybe, although I think it was not discovered for a couple of days, and when it was, it was never widely publicized. All the assessments of his race that day have always been, (it struck me like) oh, yeah, he was just a crap horse after all, and he finally puked. Well…NO!!

I was OUTRAGED at the time, and I remember all this pretty well. I had an uncle who worked at Delaware Park, and my career goal was to be a jockey, so I followed racing pretty closely. I had been burnt up that they raced Canonero in the third leg after he lost a significant portion of his foot to thrush; I never saw the Sports Illustrated thing that protested them racing him until I was an adult, but when I did, I realized I was pretty freakin’ on the beam for having been 9 at the time. Anyway, all this comes up for me now because of all the footage that’s on YouTube of the races - there’s Sham running a hell of a race in the Derby and the Preakness AND in the Belmont until he just tanks. SO unlike the other races. I get this eerie forshadowing of Ruffian which I also watched on that track. And this new (crummy) book alludes to him almost losing his life. I’m fairly ill that when at last there was the chance to really rectify a lot of this, apparently that chance has been wasted so badly. So can somebody PLEASE tell me the particulars - WHAT exactly happened to Sham? I KNOW I’m not making this up. But I really think the fact that this was never widely reported goes a long way towards why the horse never established a better reputation. I’m not saying it was a concerted conspiracy to discredit him - you could’ve had a talking horse that laid golden eggs in those days and if its name wasn’t Secretariat, nobody was going to give a damn. :lol:

[Blinkers_On]

He wasn’t retired after the Belmont. He was kept in training with the hope of running against Secretariat at Saratoga. in Mid July a hairline fracture was detected, and he was retired.
Sham mad the misfortune of having to run against Big Red in the TC.
In the Belmont from a tactical stand point even if Laffit had not shadowed Secretariat, when he went for the lead, the outcome would have been the same. Secretariat was never going to be denied on that day. He even changed his race style on his own. He went from stalker/closer to speed and find as many gears as he could ever need.
As impressive as Secretariat was, throughout the TC and his career, I think the Belmont defines him… shows what an intense super freak he was.

[mortebella]

Yeah, I wikipedia-ed for it after I posted this. Sorry, duh. I’m not arguing he would’ve beaten Secretariat that day - I think S. had established in the D. & P. already he WAS the faster horse. I’m just saying it’s QUITE conceivable Sham sustained the fracture THAT day, and it did affect his performance, and his subsequent reputation, even if they didn’t have the presence of mind to x-ray for it until sometime later. I’m trying to firm up details, and chain of events here a little better. Thanks for your reply though

[Gestalt]

No info

I don’t know anything that can help you, I just wanted to say I have always loved Sham. In a different time period he could have been remembered as a great horse. Now he is forever compared to the Secretariat. No one can compare to Secretariat, he really was unique.

[Blinkers_On]

[QUOTE=mortebella;3726441]
Yeah, I wikipedia-ed for it after I posted this. Sorry, duh. I’m not arguing he would’ve beaten Secretariat that day - I think S. had established in the D. & P. already he WAS the faster horse. I’m just saying it’s QUITE conceivable Sham sustained the fracture THAT day, and it did affect his performance, and his subsequent reputation, even if they didn’t have the presence of mind to x-ray for it until sometime later. I’m trying to firm up details, and chain of events here a little better. Thanks for your reply though :)[/QUOTE]

I wasn’t implying that you thought he would have beaten him. I just am too taken with the horse and a wee bit passionate about him…

[mortebella]

[QUOTE=Gestalt;3726589]
I don’t know anything that can help you, I just wanted to say I have always loved Sham. In a different time period he could have been remembered as a great horse. Now he is forever compared to the Secretariat. No one can compare to Secretariat, he really was unique.[/QUOTE]

I really have always loved Sham too. He was a class act. Secretariat was certainly a gifted athlete but for me - and I’m sure I’m about to invite a big can o’ whoop-ass to be opened upon my humble self - he never exemplified the TB work ethic and mystique. There were too many times when he came up short with no explanation- he knocked a tooth out on the starting gate? Please, that’s just mud in the eye of every horse who ever ran on “three legs and a heart.” Stuff like that just left a lingering suspicion for me that if it hadn’t all been so easy for Secretariat, we wouldn’t have seen from him the same kind of game performances we saw from Sham. What I see in Sham is the WILL to run, the WILL to get HIS head in front, that just brings tears to my eyes. And remember, he had beaten him. I believe he thought he could To me, these are the ones with the real wings.

[Florida_Fan]

in the sun

[QUOTE=Blinkers On;3726427]
He wasn’t retired after the Belmont. He was kept in training with the hope of running against Secretariat at Saratoga. in Mid July a hairline fracture was detected, and he was retired.
Sham mad the misfortune of having to run against Big Red in the TC.
In the Belmont from a tactical stand point even if Laffit had not shadowed Secretariat, when he went for the lead, the outcome would have been the same. Secretariat was never going to be denied on that day. He even changed his race style on his own. He went from stalker/closer to speed and find as many gears as he could ever need.
As impressive as Secretariat was, throughout the TC and his career, I think the Belmont defines him… shows what an intense super freak he was.[/QUOTE]
I don’t know how many of you had the priveledge of seeing Secretariat run in person, but I am a veteran trainer, not easily impressed but he brought chills watching him “switch gears” to as many as pleased him. I watched him in the Maryland Futurity as a 2 yo and he broke last on a sloppy track, looked each of his competitors in the eye, matched a few strides with each, then said “catch me if you can” and galloped away from the field.

[DLee]

Is this the case of Secretariat not having the peers to run with him and push him making him prove himself? Because I believe he still has some fastest times standing (correct me if I’m wrong). I think that pretty much disproves any case of he had it so ‘easy’.

[summerhorse]

Secretariat was a freak. I do remember reading that for most if not all of his poor placings (except the first race) he had missed an important fast work before which apparently the big lug needed.

Poor Sham, he tried so hard. I do believe something happened in the Belmont, either he did fracture it then or just started a fracture that came out later. Without Secretariat I don’t believe that would have happened as he wouldn’t have had to run so hard. But it’s all water under the bridge now!

[EventerAJ]

Obligatory Secretariat Belmont Video

Can’t mention the big red name without linking that footage.

I’ve seen it a million times and it still gives me chills to hear "HE IS MOVING LIKE A TREMENDOUS MACHINE!!!"

[Blue_Domino]

Sham wouldn’t even place in the top 10 fastest TB’s to run 1 1/2 miles on the Belmont track.

Secretariat’s 2:24 flat time still stands. He’s over two seconds faster than the 2nd and 3rd placed horses who’ve run the fastest Belmont times at that distance. Even the 2nd and 3rd fastest horses would have been several lengths behind Secretariat.

Sham was over 30 lengths behind. Not at all impressive. If he hurt himself running in the Belmont, he just wasn’t Belmont material.

Secretariat was a monster, a machine. There had never been anything like him before, and there has never been anything like him since.

As a broodmare sire, he has left his mark on TB racing, his daughters have produced the #1 sires in the world.

I can’t recall an offspring or grandget of Sham ever doing anything spectacular, and subscribed to Bloodhorse and TB Times for many many years.

[GreenMachine]

[QUOTE=mortebella;3726811]
Secretariat was certainly a gifted athlete but for me - and I’m sure I’m about to invite a big can o’ whoop-ass to be opened upon my humble self - he never exemplified the TB work ethic and mystique. There were too many times when he came up short with no explanation- he knocked a tooth out on the starting gate? Please, that’s just mud in the eye of every horse who ever ran on “three legs and a heart.” [/QUOTE]

Actually, it was Sham who had the “tooth knocked” excuse. He knocked out two of them in the starting gate of the Kentucky Derby. Is it a legitimate excuse now?

[Glimmerglass]

[QUOTE=Blue Domino;3729313]
Sham wouldn’t even place in the top 10 fastest TB’s to run 1 1/2 miles on the Belmont track.[/QUOTE]

I’m pretty sure that Sham was eased well before hitting the stretch as the field overtook him as the rounded the last turn of the backstretch. Something was wrong with him and seeing Laffit Pincay Jr. apply too much pressure in the 1 1/2 mi run was just not the best orders. As much as some may discredit Sham he was a talented horse and that impressive Santa Anita Derby wasn’t a fluke nor was his run in Kentucky Derby.

The question asked far too often of other horses in other years: “Would [insert name here] have won the TC that year if it had not been for X horse?” Who knows. Empire Maker might have won the TC had it not been for Funny Cide, Flying Paster if there was no Bid, Alydar if not for Affirmed, etc.

Clearly the '73 Belmont was such a reduced field that year because Secretariat scared so many off. Sham easily would’ve dispatched the others to victory in Belmont too. Let’s be real here - the likes of Pvt Smiles (the alias name of Marylou Whitney) wasn’t exactly the cream of the crop.

Penny has openly said many times that she liked Sham and respect him. For that I think we should as well.

I myself think that Secretariat, while a great horse undoubtedly, has a Paul Bunyon-esq legend and myth about him that overshadows what the real horse accomplished and also failed at. We’ll never know what would’ve happened had Spectacular Bid, Citation, Dr Fager or Kelso would’ve done against Secretariat. All ran with an insatiable internal drive mixed with physical ability the likes of which are found in such a precious few horses that it would be impossible to predict the outcome.

Comparing Sham to all that really isn’t terribly fair.

[Kyzteke]

[QUOTE=Gestalt;3726589]
I don’t know anything that can help you, I just wanted to say I have always loved Sham. In a different time period he could have been remembered as a great horse. Now he is forever compared to the Secretariat. No one can compare to Secretariat, he really was unique.[/QUOTE]

I was actually there at Belmont the day Secretariat won. I’d been walking hots for Frank Whitely (I use to walk Icecapade as a 2 yr. old) and we had a horse in the race just before the Belmont. Because our barn was just two down from Secretariat, I saw him alot – what a horse!

He was in a class by himself, that’s for sure.

But I liked Sham as well and I often think he could have won the Triple Crown that year if not for having the misfortune to be born in the same year as Big Red.

As I remember, the scuttlebutt on the backside was that Penny Tweedy was sort of ticked that they hadn’t counted S’s time in the Preakness as a record, and some folks were STILL staying Sham could beat him in a “fair” race (remember, in the KY Derby Sham banged his mouth on the starting gate & lost a tooth, and in the Preakness he’d been boxed in – yet in both cases he didn’t lose by that much).

So she told Turcotte “let him run…show people what he can really do.”

And at the same time Sham’s trainer told the jock “ok, this time you stay with that big red SOB…don’t let him get away from you.”

And that’s what happened. If you look at the tape, it was sort of a match race in the beginning. Sham has a big heart – HUGE – but I really think it got broken that day. NO ONE could stay with Secretariat…recall they actually ran 1 1/2 miles with each 1/4 FASTER than the one before. He just kept going faster and faster and FASTER. Amazing.

I was standing right in front of the wire and the crowd was so thick you really couldn’t see anything but the break (Belmont’s a mile & 1/2 track) and then the finish…Secretariat out there all by his lonesome…then (it seemed like HOURS later) the rest of the field.

I think Sham finished dead last that day…too bad, he was a hell of a horse in his own right but Secretariat was…well, Secretariat. We will not see his quality again…at least, certainly not in my lifetime.

Still brings tears to my eyes when I watch that race…

[TBCollector]

Sham fractured a cannon bone in a workout after the Belmont and was retired.
He was one of the sweetest horses I’ve ever had the pleasure of being around. I have photos of my husband and I laying on him in his pasture at Spendthrift while he’s taking a doze…every year around Derby time I would bring him some peppermints and bananas (his favorite).

[Blinkers_On]

You who were here on the day and saw Secretariat run are all my hero!
I would be rendered speechless and that’s tough to do!
I get choked up every time I see it and he inspires me every single day!
I don’t know that he actually has peers other than the other super freaks of the sport and they are few and far between!

[Gestalt]

[QUOTE=Kyzteke;3729466]
I was actually there at Belmont the day Secretariat won. I’d been walking hots for Frank Whitely (I use to walk Icecapade as a 2 yr. old) and we had a horse in the race just before the Belmont. Because our barn was just two down from Secretariat, I saw him alot – what a horse!

He was in a class by himself, that’s for sure.

But I liked Sham as well and I often think he could have won the Triple Crown that year if not for having the misfortune to be born in the same year as Big Red.

As I remember, the scuttlebutt on the backside was that Penny Tweedy was sort of ticked that they hadn’t counted S’s time in the Preakness as a record, and some folks were STILL staying Sham could beat him in a “fair” race (remember, in the KY Derby Sham banged his mouth on the starting gate & lost a tooth, and in the Preakness he’d been boxed in – yet in both cases he didn’t lose by that much).

So she told Turcotte “let him run…show people what he can really do.”

And at the same time Sham’s trainer told the jock “ok, this time you stay with that big red SOB…don’t let him get away from you.”

And that’s what happened. If you look at the tape, it was sort of a match race in the beginning. Sham has a big heart – HUGE – but I really think it got broken that day. NO ONE could stay with Secretariat…recall they actually ran 1 1/2 miles with each 1/4 FASTER than the one before. He just kept going faster and faster and FASTER. Amazing.

I was standing right in front of the wire and the crowd was so thick you really couldn’t see anything but the break (Belmont’s a mile & 1/2 track) and then the finish…Secretariat out there all by his lonesome…then (it seemed like HOURS later) the rest of the field.

I think Sham finished dead last that day…too bad, he was a hell of a horse in his own right but Secretariat was…well, Secretariat. We will not see his quality again…at least, certainly not in my lifetime.

Still brings tears to my eyes when I watch that race…[/QUOTE]

I think that day at Belmont broke Sham’s heart. The same happened to Riva Ridge. Please sate my curiosity, in a video of one of the races I saw Sham kicking at the grooms as they tried to wash him down after a race. He was actually cow-kicking at them. Is this a “normal” thing?

TBCollector, could you share a few of your Sham pix?

[Blinkers_On]

I agree. A race like that beats the crap out of the psyche of the game. A sad reality of the mental part of the sport.

[Kyzteke]

@Gestalt;3729818

I think that day at Belmont broke Sham’s heart. The same happened to Riva Ridge. Please sate my curiosity, in a video of one of the races I saw Sham kicking at the grooms as they tried to wash him down after a race. He was actually cow-kicking at them. Is this a “normal” thing?

Yeah – alot of them would do that…they didn’t like the water dripping off their bellies & hind legs. Remember, many racehorses aren’t exactly poster children for Old Dobbin the Therapy Horse. Alot of them can be real stinkers. They are wound pretty tight.

If they were cheap claimers, maybe the groom would whack 'em when they cowkicked.

Stakes winners – maybe they might yell at 'em.

Horses like Sham? You just get out of the way…<g>

[Kyzteke]

[QUOTE=mortebella;3726811]
I really have always loved Sham too. He was a class act. Secretariat was certainly a gifted athlete but for me - and I’m sure I’m about to invite a big can o’ whoop-ass to be opened upon my humble self - he never exemplified the TB work ethic and mystique. There were too many times when he came up short with no explanation- he knocked a tooth out on the starting gate? [/QUOTE]
You’ve already been corrected on the tooth thing.

Since you obviously aren’t that familiar with horse racing, go back and review some records.

Secretariat lost only 1 race, plus I think he was set down once for a jock disqualification.

He not only won the Triple Crown, he set track records in each of the three races (Yeah, I count the Preakness – not his fault the “official” timers screwed up).

I always laugh when people compare Funny Cide, Smarty Jones, Barabaro, etc. to Secretariat…

And knowledgable racing experts who actually SAW the horse voted him 2nd (only to Man O’War) best race horse of the 20th Century. So I’m thinking he DID have a work ethic and “mystique.”