Colonial Affair Belmont Stakes 1993 - Prairie Bayou's fate

[ashlee19881000]

Isn't he the one who called Ruffian's races? It he is, its sad that he had to call another race where a horse broke down. I can't help but wonder why there have been so many break downs at Belmont? Ruffian, Go For Wand, Prairie Bayou and i'm sure theres more im not aware of. Not saying its a bad track, or sport for that matter, I love it. But its kinda odd. And to add to it, Ruffian is buried there. I don't know much about Prairie Bayou buts its too bad this happened to him

[BarbaroLover2003]

awww poor baby!



[sarsfield7]

i was with wild gale during this triple crown and was gutted with prarie bayou fatal injury and also with the death of union city in the preakness , i had a bad feeling about him during that race.

[geezup6589]

its dave johnson

[21Sarabi]

I don't think he is an ass for moving on by saying anyways. He may have been trying to divert the viewers attention back to the race.

[ponyrider456]

thats my pony's daddy that won right thurrr(:

[nyletakatelyn]

what the heck is cherokee run doing in this mile and a half race?

[koolazguy8]

Xbloodwingx... just to let you know thats not Tom Durkin, thats Dave Johnson!

[xbloodwingx]

REALLY not liking the way Durkin nonchalantly skipped from talking about Prarie Bayou to going back to calling the race. I know it's his job to make the call, not narrate specific horses, but still, the "oh well" really rubbed me the wrong way. Excellent race though, loved Colonial Affair's rally on the stretch.

[Dingerz]

Tom Durkin does care - do you hear how devestated he sounds when Barbaro broke down, or when Go For Wand Broke Down? You can hear his pain. So he's certainly not someone who doesn't care. But his JOB is to call the race, so he can't exactly dwell on it.

[xbloodwingx]

Reread my first comment and you'll see that I KNOW that and I never said anything about him not caring. I just said that the nonchalant "oh well" rubbed me the wrong way. He's a great announcer and he has some CLASSIC and absolutely hysterical calls, this one just didn't sit well is all.

[bnegs521]

It wasn't Tom Durkin who called this race it was Dave Johnaon. He handled very poorly and is an ass for it in this situation.

[bnegs521]

@Dingerz

Too bad that's not Tom Durkin. It's Dave Johnson.

[Dingerz]

@bnegs521 Yes, I know that. When I responded that time ago, I didn't bother to listen to the track to realize. (mind defaults to Tom) Growing up on Phar Lap, and having Dave Johnson do the announcing for the Agua Caliente for the film, I'll always know when it's Dave. :)

[bnegs521]

Actually this was Dave Johnson. Who had a great announcing career but should have been ashamed of himself for this call. And ABC handled the situation very poorly as well. For Dave Johnson to use the word "Anyways" after Prarie Bayou broke his leg was dispicable of Dave and for ABC not to update Bayou's condition until after their giddiness of Krone winning was sad on their part. Johnson made an ass out of himself and you are right. It was a sad day in his career.

[samsam29]

@bnegs521 you are overreacting. Johnson did stop for a while to speak about Bayou in the middle of the race, and they did speak of him after the race. There's no need to go hysterical with breaking news footage of the horse and stop everything else including the interview with the actual winner. It was sad, but it happens, and will continue happening.

[bnegs521]

@samsam29

I am not overreacting or hysterical at all. It was a poor call and Dave Johnson knows that. As great a call he had in the 1989 Preakness this was a poor call by him to say 'anyways'. NBC and Tom Durkin handled things much better when breakdowns happened with Barbaro and Eight Belles., Dave had a great career and many good calls but this was a poor one. Certainly not his only moment I will remember at all. Are you his son by chance?

[samsam29]

@bnegs521 Americans nowadays want to make it a national tragedy whenever a horse breaks down. Well hell, that's part of the sport, and that won't change. As sad as it is, there's still a race to be called and a champion to be crowned. Prairie Bayou wasn't squirming in pain either during the race so Johnson didn't take it too seriously at first. Not his best call but let's not get carried away either. And no, I'm not his son. Are you his sworn enemy?

[bnegs521]

@samsam29

Actually I have always been a big fan of Johnson and sorry he isn't around the Triple Crown Series anymore. He is a great announcer who had a bad day and got caught up in Julie Krone winning. Maybe he wanted to do her. Who knows? That he forgoit to be classier when the favorite and Preakness winner only three weeks prior broke down. Like I said the breakdowns of Eight Belles, Barbaro and Charasmatic were handled much better by NBC and Tom Durkin.

[joshb729]

@xbloodwingx Umm This isn't Durkin calling the race. This is Dave Johnson. In the Belmont Durkin call he completely missed Prairie Bayou falling back and didn't even mention it one.

[sugarpuppy137]

Didn't Union City(I think that's his name) break something in the preakness and had to be put down too in 1993?

[Dingerz]

Yes, I do remember that. It was a bad year..

[sugarpuppy137]

That's too bad. Hopefully this next year we won't have any falls or breaks.

[seattlerob7]

yes union city broke down in the preakness,he walked into the race ,so i knew that was a bad omen sad to see prarie boyou break down too

[bnegs521]

Yes he did. Union City should have never been run in that race. D Wayne Lukas was in deep debt and ran an injured horse. He will have to live with that until he dies that he personally murdered Union City. The press went after lukas for running an injured horse and there was speculation the horse was not right even before the race. That is the cruel world of horse racing at its best. Not the first time by a long shot Lukas did something like that though.

[chrisuncleahmad]

Is this the record for most horses in a Belmont Stakes?

[bnegs521]

The Belmont allows for 14 starters.

[horseboy14]

when did prairie bayou fall?

[Dingerz]

He fell on the backstretch. They actually zoom in on a footage of him running without the jockey in the race at 1:32. I remember watching this and feeling awful. I thought of this when I saw Barbaro's Preakness. Though Barbaro was so calm it at least looked hopeful..

[livkit]

Hey I just wanted to write to you about Prairie Bayou in the Belmont. He never fell down, his jockey,Mike Smith, felt him break his leg and he jumped off. Prairie never had a chance after that. I am a big fan of Prairie and just wanted to let you know.

[carlykaiser]

That's A LOT of horses!!

[Dingerz]

It is. Though it usually means that they felt the field didn't contain enough "for sure's" that owners and trainers felt they had a chance. I know a few years in the 90's the fields weren't exactly overly strong.  There were years where I just didn't feel as involved or interested because of the weaker fields.

[partymanners]

I loved Colonial Affair, he really hit his best stride in 94.