Kentucky Derby Day Bike Ride

He was the greatest athlete of his generation.  He stood 66 inches high (at the shoulder), was 75 inches across, weighed nearly one ton and was a beautiful chestnut color.  And he could run… fast.  Of course we mean Secretariat, arguably the finest racehorse ever.  The first Saturday in May is the Kentucky Derby Day here in the States.  Another year and another field of horses will try--and probably fail--to break “Big Red’s” record of 1:59 2/5.  The mark, set in his unbelievable Triple Crown season of 1973, still stands as the time to beat at Churchill Downs.

 

Secretariat won the Belmont by 31 lengths.

In his racing career Secretariat entered 21 races and finished in the money on 20 occasions with 16 victories.  He raced as two and three year old.  He was named horse of the year twice, the only two years he raced.  He retired in 1974.  Legend has it that the huge colt had an abnormally large heart that was able to pump more blood and cycle more oxygen faster than other horses.  All of that cardiac energy moved the big horse at speeds not seen previously.  That set off a breeding frenzy of owners and trainers looking for that next big-hearted foal that would grow into the next great racehorse.   

That didn’t happen.  Secretariat sired roughly 200 foals, none of which had his attributes of size, speed and endurance.  Trainers complained of Big Red’s strange proclivity to produce a high number of fillies, not colts.  Geneticists have thoeried that if Secretariat had a “big heart gene” it was an X chromosome gene and thus could only be transferred to his female offspring which by nature are smaller in stature than colts.  It could be that Secretariat was simply something that comes along once.  We may never see his level of talent on the track again.  He truly was something to behold.

Take the legend of Secretariat with you on your next bike ride.  See if you can achieve the harmony of heart, lungs, and legs churning together as a finely-tuned machine.   If you happen to be in Louisville, Kentucky for the Derby we hope you have your bike.  Good things are happening for bike riders in the Bluegrass State.   For one, the city has 122 parks in the metro area.  Many were laid out by Frederick Law Olmstead, designer of New York’s Central Park, and most have bike paths.  The Louisville Waterfront Park sits beside the Ohio River with easy riverside rides available.  Just outside of town is the Jefferson Memorial Forest, the biggest urban forest in America.  Road cyclist can have a good ride through it but mountain bikers love the 30 miles of trails in the woods.   

What might be most exciting for bike riders in the Louisville area is the Louisville Loop.  Completed in 2012 the Loop is 100 miles of continuous paved bike paths that takes riders around Louisville.  The Loop is divided into five distinct geographic sections.  One section features limestone, another shale and so on.  For more information visit the Loop’s website www.louisvilleloop.org.

Back to the Derby…  After looking at the odds, past performances, and times the SBT will select Verrazano to win.  We’ll also go with a tri-fecta of Verrazano, Revolutionary, and Normandy Invasion.  Maybe we will box it. 

We have a video of the Louisville Loop on our website at www.stickybottleteam.net