Still waiting for a super horse?

A discussion on a Yahoo forum I frequent -- dubbed tb_breeding_theory -- prompted some thinking on my part.

It was suggested by one person that the breeding and racing industry goes through a roughly 30-year cycle in which we keep producing equally well-bred horses, but none of them reaches "super horse" status.

I asked myself (and others), do we really go through a 30-year cycle between "super horses?"

And I decided that I don't think so, but it might depend on how we define "super horse."

It seems to me the drought is really in Triple Crown winners. But certainly that can't be the only measure of a "super horse." I'd say Spectacular Bid was one (26-for-30 lifetime), and he lost the Triple Crown.

I'm sure nobody needs this history lesson, but the American Triple Crown was won three times in the 1970s -- Secretariat in '73, Seattle Slew in '77, and Affirmed in '78). All are undeniably "super horses" who rarely lost, and certainly took down America's most notable title; "Triple Crown winner."

The Bid had his shot in 1979.

So by that measure, we'd be looking at -- about nowadays, really -- for the next "super horse" to arrive. If we're on a 30-year cycle.

But what has racing seen since? Were there no "super horses" in the interim?

Just looking at Kentucky Derby winners, we see these examples (dated by their Derby wins):

1985 -- Spend a Buck: Surely almost nobody would consider this colt by a relatively unheralded son of Buckpasser (Buckaroo) to be a "super horse." But then again, why not? He was 10-for-15 lifetime and never finished worse than third, earning more than $4.2 million. He was a Grade 1 winner at 2 and 3, and very well might have backed up his Derby win with victory in the Preakness had his connections not skipped Pimlico for Garden State Park and the Jersey Derby, where a $2 million bonus had been established for any horse who could win two earlier stakes races there (the Cherry Hill Mile April 6 and the Garden State Stakes April 20), plus the Kentucky and Jersey derbies. ... Spend a Buck followed the money. ... Champion 3-year-old colt and Horse of the Year, Spend a Buck's connections possibly kept him from going down in history as a "super horse" by choosing the $2 million bonus over winning the Preakness (a Churchill-Pimlico double many horses have made) and then at least trying the Belmont, where I'm not sure he would have beaten Creme Fraiche (the only gelding ever to win the race), but finishing second or third would've preserved his 100 percent OTB record lifetime.

1987 -- Alysheba: Maybe going 11-8-2 for 26 starts isn't a high enough win percentage to qualify for "super horse." But he was a G1 winner 10 times, took the Derby and Preakness at 3, the Breeders' Cup Classic at 4, earned $6.6 million, and was a champion three times; 3-year-old colt, older horse and Horse of the Year.

1989 -- Sunday Silence: A lock for "super horse" status had he not lost to Easy Goer in the Belmont Stakes, this near-black son of Halo won nine of 14 (six G1s), never finished worse than second, and went on to sire the richest lifetime foal crop in world history.

That would seem to get us through the 1980s with at least several near-misses for "super horse" status.

The Derby winners were a relative dearth of super-horse candidates for several years after Sunday Silence -- Unbridled, Strike the Gold, Lil E. Tee, Sea Hero, Go For Gin, Thunder Gulch, Grindstone. But even among those (who were still undeniably pretty good racehorses) emerged two major U.S. sires in Unbridled and Thunder Gulch.

Then in 1997 we saw the beginning of a run on near-Triple Crowns, that began with Silver Charm (12-for-24 lifetime, beaten three-quarters by Touch Gold in the Belmont to lose the Triple Crown). It would be hard to argue a 6-for-20 horse is a "super horse," but had Real Quiet been a nose quicker than Victory Gallop at Belmont, he'd have been a Triple Crown winner the next year and the drought would have been broken 12 years ago. Charismatic nearly did it just one year later, finishing third despite a broken leg. War Emblem, Funny Cide and Smarty Jones gave us another three-year stretch from 2002-2004 where the first two legs were won and the Triple lost at Belmont; War Emblem stumbled at the start of his legend-defining race, Funny Cide was a credible third and Smarty Jones crushed everybody in his Belmont Stakes -- except Birdstone, who ran him down and won by about a length.

So that's six near-triples from 1997-2004. Had any of them broken through we'd be talking about half or less the Triple Crown drought we're presently suffering. And at least a couple of those horses (Silver Charm, definitely Smarty Jones) would be serious arguments for "super horse" status had they won a Belmont Stakes (and thus Triple Crown) they narrowly lost.

(Big Brown was our latest TC shot, but threw a stinker in the Belmont.)

I think Barbaro was a super horse, but regrettably we can't fully label him such. We'll never know how and why he went wrong in the Preakness, but had he run it the way he did the Derby, maybe not even a razor-sharp Bernardini would have been beating him that day. And how many rivals even would have shown up at Belmont three weeks later?

None of this takes into account horses like John Henry (39-for-86, 16 G1s, seven times champion, raced 1977-84), Cigar (19-for-33, 16 straight at one point), Zenyatta (17-for-17), Curlin (11-for-16, five G1s, $10.5 million), and Rachel Alexandra (13-for-18, three historic G1 wins vs. males), nor anyone overseas, most recently and notably Sea The Stars, who might have been the first English Triple Crown winner since Nijinsky (1970) had his connections not considered the accomplishment so unimportant as to not even try the St. Leger at 14 furlongs.

So I'd argue we've not suffered a dearth of "super horses" since the last U.S. Triple Crown was won in 1978. We've just had a lack of that one horse who could be a length (or sometimes less) faster on one day of his life (or be handled differently by his connections) to break the Triple Crown drought -- and thus to take our minds off the question, "How long has it been since we saw the last 'super horse?'"

You can't go home again ... but you can flash back

Traveling back home to Kansas -- Coffeyville, specifically, where I attended high school and junior college, worked for seven years after college, and where most of my family still lives -- has spurred some thinking on my part.

Where did my fascination with horses and racing begin? Why is it that the only dream I have besides wonderful, long, healthy lives for my kids consists of a farm or ranch house, lots of acreage, and horses about as far as my eye can see?

Then I saw a clip from an old TV show on the Internet and it dawned on me: TV westerns.

Granted, there isn't horse racing in those old westerns -- like "Bonanza," "The Virginian," "The Big Valley," my grandmother's favorite, "Gunsmoke," etc. -- but there were plenty of horses. And rugged men whom a little boy in front of a TV set would want to grow up and emulate.

Specifically, more than any of the characters, I wanted to grow up and be like Manolito Montoya from my personal favorite of the western series, "The High Chaparral." Played by Henry Darrow -- birth name Enrique Tomas Delgado -- Manolito was the brother of Victoria (Linda Cristal), wife in a marriage of convenience to "Big John" Cannon (Leif Erickson), patriarch of the family and owner of the High Chaparral Ranch in Arizona Territory.

"The High Chaparral" debuted on Sept. 10, 1967, just a day after I turned 1. So my recollections of the show are from late-afternoon reruns in the early and mid 1970s.

Since I was just about the whitest kid in one of the most-caucasian parts of America at the time -- wheat farming and ranching country of northwest Kansas, Phillipsburg, to be exact -- I'm not exactly sure what made me aspire to be like the son of 19th century Mexican squire. I guess Manolito Montoya was just the coolest, most dashing, baddest cat on TV at the time. At least in my young opinion.

Ultimately, I grew up not to be Manolito Montoya, but rather Hoss Cartwright. Same line of work, at least, but not so dashing. Which is why when I begin to tell people of my love for horses and racing -- and what as a child I aspired to be when I grew up -- they start laughing before I can finish the story. They're always expecting to hear me say "jockey," when the sentence is actually to be finished with the word "cowboy." Nobody would ever confuse Hoss Cartwright, or me, with a jockey.

Anyway, at about the same time as my love for TV westerns was at its height, Triple Crowns were falling like tenpins in the racing world. The news was abuzz about Secretariat in 1973 -- the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years -- then Seattle Slew followed up with another in '77 and Affirmed a third in '78. Spectacular Bid woulda, coulda, shoulda made it three in 1979. So horse racing was at perhaps its highest point of visibility since the 1940s or early 1950s at the same time as my interest in horses was piqued by a slew of TV westerns in syndication.

At least, it's as good a theory as any for why a kid born hours from anywhere in northwest Kansas, from a family that otherwise owned no horses nor had anyone with an interest in them, would become a racing fan of his own volition by his early teens.

I also had a friend at the time whose father was one of the biggest hereford ranchers in the region. I always enjoyed visiting their house, helping (or more likely, trying not to be a hindrance) with chores like feeding hay off the back of a flatbed truck in the winter, and afterward sipping hot chocolate and gazing out over the plains at acre upon acre of livestock, thinking, "I'd like to have this someday."

High school counselors have different ideas. Any kid who scores well on the ACT or SAT has no business raising livestock for a living. Go find something else ... something that requires lots more schooling (which I never enjoyed) ... something that takes you away from this little town and its country way of life.

Regrets, I've had a few.

Finally, watching the reruns spurred me to relisten to the theme songs for these shows, which were appropriately dramatic. They still send a chill up this big little boy's spine -- particularly the themes from "The High Chaparral" and "The Big Valley."

So I've set up a poll at left of my favorite shows and themes. Listen to the themes at YouTube, if you will, and cast a vote. And "The Lone Ranger" doesn't count; that's "just" the "William Tell Overture." Otherwise, feel free to offer your shows and themes in the comments. It'll be a good vacation diversion for me.

Theme Songs:
1. Bonanza
2. The Big Valley
3. The High Chaparral
4. The Virginian
5. Gunsmoke
6. The Wild Wild West
7. The Rifleman
8. Rawhide

How's this for a quick-hitter?

Even after a plot to keep Rachel Alexandra out of the Preakness Stakes fell by the wayside Sunday, the connections of Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird, owned and trained by men experienced in the improvisational pugilistic arts, remain interesting.

The day after the Birdstone gelding scored at an improbable 50-1, the Anchorage Daily News reported that principal owner Mark Allen of Double Eagle Ranch in New Mexico might have become criminally entangled in Alaska's ongoing public corruption probe, if not for immunity gained as a condition of his father Bill's plea bargain. Certainly that story has now made the rounds fairly well, but as colorful as this group seems to be, it seems that stories not normally told of Derby-winning connections could keep filtering to the top.

Like this: The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, also on the day after the Derby, might have been the first to report that Allen and longtime trainer (and ex-bull rider) Bennie Woolley Jr., first became friends as the result of a bar brawl. It's only a brief reference to the scuffle in a story primarily about the horse -- who, hopefully, will get to be the one in the spotlight ongoing. But it seems that some 25 years ago, Allen fomented fisticuffs in a drinking establishment, Woolley for whatever reason came to his aid, and the two have been buddies since.

The Associated Press sort of wrapped up the coverage of the connections later in the week, including some additional details on the Alaskan bribery probe.

As a small-town Kansas boy with a modest upbringing, I'd like to root for connections that are a little (O.K., a lot) rough around the edges by Triple Crown standards. Married into a rodeo family, I have a fondness for the fellas who congregate behind the chutes. It's a tough crowd, but if you can show 'em you're legit -- particularly that you're interested in and truly know their sport, not just a (ahem) tinhorn assigned to cover the rodeo -- they'll take you in almost as one of their own.

On the other hand, as a journalist by training and trade, tasked with keeping an eye on local government and business for signs of corruption, the bribery mess in Alaska keeps me from jumping on the Allen-Woolley bandwagon.

It does not, however, sour me on the horse. I don't wish him ill, or even particularly a loss. All he knows is he's born to race, and has earned his chance to be the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed by running the race of his life at Churchill.

Hopefully since the plot went poof his connections have turned their thoughts fully to prepping their little fellow for the race. Because while Rachel Alexandra -- and her four-straight Beyer speed figures over 100 -- might be his biggest threat, the Daily Racing Form past performances for potential Preakness contenders show she isn't the only one.