Derby Trail Forums - Jeff Siegel, Spectacular Bid Failed attempt

He turned in a very poor workout five days before the Belmont:

He worked a mile in 1:39 and finished the work up "tired" while "under encouragement"

As you can see, at 4 mintues and 20 seconds into this clip of the '79 Belmont Coverage, he was on his toes and acting unruly in the pre-race:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umZtcw1HeFU

He was cleared by the state vet -- both before the race, and New York sent a vet to look at him the day after. In both instances, he was declared sound -- though Dr. Harthill found an infection in his foot a few days after the Belmont Stakes:

Regarding the points that Jeff Siegal made, of "trying to win by more than 31 lengths" and "trying to break the track record of 2:24 flat" ... that was simply impossible.

The horse who finished 2nd to Secretariat in the Belmont, Twice A Prince, was a complete bum...both before the Belmont and after it.

Secretariat truly ran an unbelievable race in the Belmont, take nothing from him. He dueled Sham to a walk -- and torched 12 furlongs over a track that was playing like cement. It is and was one of the greatest races in history.

However, Spectacular Bid faced a much deeper field. Both Coastal and General Assembly were better horses than Sham. A few of the others in there were pretty solid horses as well.

The track was also much, much slower on Belmont Stakes day in 1979.

Earlier in the day, that seasons champion sprinter Star De Naskra (who won the 6f Bold Ruler by 5 lengths & wired the Carter over Alydar and Sensitive Prince in his last two starts) battled with Darby Creek Road (still to this day holds Saratoga track record of 1:20.40 for 7 furlongs) at the distance of a mile.

They battled through fractions of: 23 4/5 and 46 3/5 on a straight away.

Ronnie Franklin sent Spectacular Bid after a 90/1 shot through similar fractions, but in a 12f race and around a turn, not on a straight-away. His ride was atrocious. So was Cordero's, who used up General Assembly and chased the suicidal pace.

As to Jeff Siegal's final point about Spectacular Bid "not being a great horse at 12 furlongs" -- as a 3-year-old, he let the 4-year-old Affirmed get loose through fractions of 25 flat and 49 flat, and he was beaten less than a length in a race that produced an exceptional fast final time.

Spectacular Bid had a poor pedigree. His dam was a sprinter on the Northern California fair circuits. His 2nd dam was born as a twin, and ran 51 times and competed in bottom level claiming races.

He's unquestionably the greatest campaigner of any colt in the last 40 years. He traveled all over, and was unbelievably sound and durable.

Not believing an absurd safety pin story is one thing -- I don't. However, there is pretty compelling evidence that Spectacular Bid came out the Belmont Stakes with a foot infection.

His poor workout five days before the race, his behaving unruly and irritated in the post parade, his somewhat sub-par effort in the race, and a vet finding an infection in a foot a few days after the race...it all points in that direction.