Word: colts
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...They sold phony $50 tickets to an imaginary grandstand at the 105th Run for the Roses this weekend. But their act of daring is soon to be outdone by a few intrepid horse owners. They plan to put up entries against Spectacular Bid, one of the most heavily favored colts in the history of the Derby. Many track watchers believe the big gun-metal gray colt will take this year's Triple Crown...
...Hawksworth Farm. "Black and blue," says Meyerhoff, a retired Baltimore real estate developer, "is what happens to horse owners." More accurately, black and blue is what happens to Spectacular Bid's opponents. Winner of the Eclipse Award as the nation's best two-year-old colt last year, the horse has rolled up five straight victories this spring, running away from all challengers in the East. All together, Spectacular Bid has been victorious in ten out of twelve starts. In the latest win, last week's seven-length romp in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland Race...
Like Seattle Slew, Triple Crown winner in 1977, Spectacular Bid is an auction-bargain colt with a trainer who has never handled a big-time horse and a jockey whose skills have often been criticized. Owner Meyerhoff made an unspectacular bid of just $37,000 at the Keeneland Sales in the fall of 1977 for the sturdy son of Bold Bidder and grandson of Supersire Bold Ruler (his offspring have won six of the last nine Kentucky Derbies). Meyerhoff now spends $78,000 a year just for premiums on Spectacular Bid's $14 million insurance policy...
...handling of Spectacular Bid has sometimes been amateurish. In two races he has allowed the horse to be boxed in at the rail, then failed to take advantage of an opening. On one of those occasions, the Florida Derby, Franklin rode Spectacular Bid into so many roadblocks that the colt had to come from 14 lengths behind to win. Said one veteran horseman: "It was a Paul Revere ride. He stopped at every town in Massachusetts...
...speed and poise to overcome his jockey's uneven performances. "He just glides," reports Franklin. "I'm sitting on a Rolls-Royce." The horse will have only two serious rivals in the Derby: Flying Paster, the three-year-old California champion, and General Assembly, the first Secretariat colt to reach Derby status. Flying Paster lost but one race this spring, to a colt carrying 8 Ibs. less weight. General Assembly ran twice against Spectacular Bid last year and twice was soundly beaten. Eddie Arcaro admires the colt's delicate skill as well as his strength...