The One and Only Bid; Thanks for the Memories
by Steve Haskin (Courtesy
Bloodhorse)
 ©Barbara D. Livingston |
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SPECTACULAR BID
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People are always asking me who is the greatest horse
I have ever seen. I tell them that in my opinion, Secretariat and Damascus
had the most incredible 3-year-old campaigns, and Dr. Fager, in 1968, was
the greatest horse who ever set foot on an American racetrack. But over
the course of an entire career, at ages 2, 3, and 4, Spectacular Bid was
the greatest horse I have ever seen.
His trainer, Buddy Delp, once called him, "the greatest horse to ever
look through a bridle." But the view was a lot better from the other
side of the bridle. When The Blood-Horse came out with their book, "Thoroughbred
Champions," I insisted on writing the chapter on Spectacular Bid.
I will begin this tribute with the opening graph of that story:
"The 1970s were coming to an end, and the racing gods still weren't
satisfied. First, they had created Secretariat, with the physical beauty
of Adonis and the strength of Hercules. Then came Seattle Slew, to whom
they bestowed the powers of Aeolus, god of the wind. The following year,
they came up with Affirmed, with the courage and determination of Odysseus.
But even with some of their finest work behind them, the gods made one final
attempt to creat the perfect racehorse. What they came up with was Spectacular
Bid...who was as close to the perfect racing machine as any of those before
or after him."
There have been better looking horses than The Bid. There have been better
moving horses, and better bred horses. But he had one quality that separated
him from the others -- he could do everything.
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| SPECTACULAR BID |
He won at 15 different racetracks in nine different states, and carried 130 pounds or more to victory five times. To demonstrate his dominance, and the respect the public had for him, he was sent off at odds of 1-20, that's 1-20, an unheard of eight times, and 1-10 six times. Beginning with the World's Playground, he won 24 of 26 starts, rattling off 12-race and 10-race winning streaks, while facing such classy grade I winners as Flying Paster, General Assembly, Coastal, Glorious Song, Cox's Ridge, and Golden Act. His only two defeats came at 1 1/2 miles, when he stepped on a safety pin the morning of the Belmont, almost losing his foot after a bad infection set in, and in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, when he was beaten by Hall of Famer Affirmed after being forced to miss his prep in the Woodward Stakes due to a virus.
So much for statistics. As incredible as they are, The Bid went far beyond statistics. As his coat lightened as a 4-year-old, he was like a ghostly figure hurtling down one stretch after another in isolated splendor. With his head held high and his powerful legs stretching across the racing universe, he not only went undefeated in nine starts in 1980, there was never a horse in front of him from the eighth pole to the wire.
My wife, Joan, and I have always felt a close kinship with The Bid. He was a part of our early life together, and his passing has unleashed a flood of memories.
In 1979, a week before Joan started working as public relations coordinator for the New York Racing Racing Association, we were hired by a weekly racing publication to photograph the Preakness Stakes. One of the unforgettable images was The Bid coming off the track on Preakness morning, bucking and lashing back with his hind legs, with his groom, holding on for dear life, telling the horse, "Damn, you're as crazy as the boss." Another was The Bid walking the shed later that morning, stopping in front of Davona Dale's stall. The Calumet filly had just won the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes the day before, and she had her head out the stall, with her ears pinned back to her shoulder. Each time The Bid would pass by, he'd stop, pin his ears and stare at her, flashing the whites of his eyes.
The following year, Joan and I watched from her Belmont Park office overlooking the finish line, as The Bid concluded his remarkable career with the first walkover in 31 years. Eight days later, we were married.
In 1998, we went to visit The Bid at Milfer Farm in Unadilla, N.Y., along with our then 14-year-old daughter, Mandy. I wanted to make sure she saw the "greatest horse to ever look through a bridle," at least once in her life. The Bid, now 22 and milky white, was led out of his stall and proceeded to nuzzle up against my daughter. He no longer was among the elite roster of stallions, as he had been when he was retired to Claiborne Farm with such great promise. And he no longer bore even the slightest resemblence to that charcoal gray 3-year-old with the star on his forehead. But he still held his head high with pride, and when he looked at you, that fire and spirit of his youth still shone through. He was Spectacular Bid, and he still knew it. And you knew it.
Milfer Farm owner, Dr. Jon Davis, told us at the time, "I still get goose bumps standing next to him." His devoted groom, Tim Stewart, added, "All you have to do is be around him to know he's something special."
The last image I have of The Bid is of him standing outside his barn, his white mane blowing in the breeze, with my daughter standing alongside, patting him on his neck. That moment, like his death three days ago, rekindled memories of a very special time, not only for my wife and me, but for Thoroughbred racing.
Slew, Affirmed, and now The Bid. Just like that, they're all gone, and with them the end of a golden era. We will never see the likes of Spectacular Bid again. But at least I have a photo album I can open and show my daughter. And I can tell her, "You remember these pictures of you and this great white horse named Spectacular Bid? Well, his trainer once called him the greatest horse to ever look through a bridle. It was quite an outrageous comment at the time. But, you know what? He was right."