Smarty and Secretariat -- A new appreciation

Smarty Jone's loss in the Belmont was a painful but instructive reminder of just how impressive Secretariat's Triple Crown winnning race was.

It's easy now, with the distance of history and the benefit of hindsight, to see how epic Big Red's run for the ages was. But having watched Smarty this past weekend with a surprising emotional attachment, I have a newfound appreciation for how it must have felt to watch Secretariat at that moment in time.

I'm reminded of William Nack's retelling of Secretariat's Belmont run in ESPN's profile of the horse for its "Athletes of the Century." Nack says that as he watched Secretariat jump to the early lead, he thought "the horse is going to damn fast" and that Ron Turcotte, the jockey, was going to burn him out well before the mile and a half. Like I said, the result seems obvious now - even foreordained, but I can now see how I would have been similarly freaking out. What I still can't imagine, however, is the feeling, the epiphany, the overcoming emotion specators must have had when they suddenly became aware that not only was Secretariat not going to fade, but was getting stronger and faster the closer he got to the finish line.

The story's been often told that golf legend Jack Nicklaus wept as he watched Secretariat win the Belmont. A sportswriter later attributed Jack's reaction to one penultimate athlete/competitor acknowledging another's bid for athletic perfection.

That feeling that Nicklaus and the rest of the witnesses to Secretariat's win must have felt is, I think, the very reason to watch sports and why I am such a fan. Because sports offers us moments when greatness announces itself in such a time and such a place that it lifts me, and all of us, to a better place. If only for a little while. (If you don't know what I mean, then check out the cook's explanation to Loudon Swaine why he took the night off to watch him wrestle Shute in Vision Quest for a better description).

It's also why I've been so distraught over Smarty Jone's loss. Sure I feel bad for John Servis, Elliott Stewart, the Chapman's and Smarty himself, but more than that it's a selfish reaction to the joy I personally missed out on. The feeling I would have had had Smarty been able to hold on for that last 1/4 mile. What might have been. Ahh.