<p>Oh yes! that was heartbreaking.</p>
<p>Ruffian’s death was the saddest story of an otherwise golden decade for horseracing. Wouldn’t it have been something to see what kind of foals she could have produced?</p>
<p>Just watched Coburn’s apology. Finally, an apology worth listening to and believing.</p>
<p>I definitely remember Ruffian. My sister was rooting for her. I was rooting for Foolish Pleasure. Both of us were absolutely stunned and depressed for quite some time.</p>
<p>Has there ever been another match race since?</p>
<p>GP, thanks for that wonderful article about Secretariat. In the Preakness video, where he moves from dead last into the lead on the first turn – I’ve never seen anything like it. Unbelievable.</p>
<p>Coburn’s rant didn’t bother me. Bob Costas asking the winning owner about it did. </p>
<p>Generally I like Costas but I have to agree that NBC’s coverage post-race was sort of second rate. Costas and Tom Hammond are two old hands and good at what they do but the network should have prodded them to give us more perspective on Coburn’s argument, no matter how badly he made it.</p>
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<p>I’ve read this about his grandsire, Hastings, but not him. His sire, Fair Play, was reputedly hard to handle, but not as bad as Hastings. </p>
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<p>I believe you are thinking about the foundation sire of the modern Standardbred, Rysdyck’s Hambletonian. (Although the original Hambletonian was a great thoroughbred racehorse.)</p>
<p>@Garland, I was firmly in the Alydar and Arts & Letters camps, also. 
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<p>I have definitely read about M O’ W’a temperament, but I guess at this point it’s kind of irrelevant, isn’t it? It ’ snot like his family will get hurt feelings …</p>
<p>I did find out the name of the horse I was thinking of. I believe it was the Godolphin Arabian. Does that ring a bell? Or was I thinking of that horse only because of the child’s book!</p>
<p>^Godolphin Arabian was one of three founding stallions (I used to know all three names.) King of the Wind was one of my favorite books–I must have read that and all of the Marguerite Henry books about a zillion times.</p>
<p>Godolphin Arabian, Byerley Turk…and Darley Arabian. (Had to google the last one.)</p>
<p>Yes, Marguerite Henry wrote King of the Wind about the Godolphin Arabian. She also wrote Born to Trot, which told the story of Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, embedded within a framing story about a young boy and the filly Rosalind. R’s H was the horse with his hips higher than his shoulders who founded a line, though, not the Godolphin Arabian.</p>
<p>Secretariat was a great horse, but he will always be second to the first Big Red. :)</p>
<p>When I was a kid, the NYT printed the entries for every race at Aqueduct and Belmont the next day, and the charts of the prior day’s races (including the breeding of the winners). Every evening when my father brought the paper home, I went through the entries and made my picks, and checked to see how yesterday’s picks performed. It was enormously frustrating to me that young kids were not allowed at the track. 
I was very happy when we moved to England and I was able to go to Ascot, Epsom, and National Hunt races (my favorite).</p>
<p>^Consolation—I was the same! (but I’d outgrown it by the time I was old enough!). I was a total horse nut from about 8 to 13/14. </p>
<p>Well, I cannot let a horse racing thread go by without mentioning two of my other favorites: Seattle Slew and Zenyatta. I was a happy camper the day Slew put Affirmed in his place. :)</p>