Word: backstretcher
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Trainer Billy Turner prepared Seattle Slew for the Triple Crown quest with a cool deliberation that caused more second-guessing than usual along the backstretch. He purposely raced him little, harnessing his show of speed to guard against the fatal misstep that stalks the big, fragile-legged thoroughbreds. Slew's schedule was matched with equally undemanding workouts. Horsemen were quick to point out that he was slightly "short"-not in peak form-for the Kentucky Derby. After that race, Cruguet dawdled briefly up the track before riding into the winner's circle, because Slew was winded. Said...
Overcoming a poor start and surviving a head-to-head backstretch duel, Seattle Slew got the first real test of his racing career and handled it courageously to win the 103rd Kentucky Derby by nearly two lengths. His victory was solid, but hardly overwhelming: his time of 2 min. 2 1/5 sec. for the 1¼-mile Derby distance, particularly the slow final quarter-mile, was well off the pace of past champions, even though the track was quite fast...
Whipping Hay. Cauthen was only two when his father Ronald, a blacksmith at tracks in Kentucky and Ohio, first put him on a pony. With a trainer/owner mother, Cauthen grew up on the backstretch, attending his first Kentucky Derby at the same age colts do -as a three-year-old. By the time he was twelve, he was perched beside the starting gates, studying how jockeys get away on the break. After he decided to become a rider, Steve and his father collected race films, endlessly rerunning them on a borrowed projector, to dissect the strategies of dozens of jockeys...
...customary runaway style. His time was poor (1:49 2/5% for the 1⅛% mile) and his margin a mere 1½ lengths over a 148-to-l shot named Certain Roman, primarily because he fought furiously against Jockey Braulio Baeza's efforts to slow him in the backstretch. For another, there is Bold Forbes, a sprightly East Coast colt who was thought to be essentially a sprinter until he turned in an eye-opening performance in the 1⅛%-mile Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, setting a record of 1:47 2/5% for the stakes...
SPEED SKATING Five events for men ranging from 500 to 10,000 meters. Four events for women ranging from 500 to 3,000 meters. Competitors race in pairs counterclockwise around a 400-meter rink, switching lanes in the backstretch. Skater in outside lane has right of way. Pairings are drawn...