1979 Belmont Stakes (Spectacular Bid finishes 3rd)

The 1979 Belmont Stakes won by Coastal in a HUGE upset over the heavy favorite, Spectacular Bid.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Thoroughbred
• Horse
• Racing
• Coastal
• Golden
• Act
• Spectacular
• Bid
• 1979
• Belmont
• Stakes
• Marshall
• Cassidy
• Elmont
• New
• York

[LaChocolateLady]

He should be behind the pack.. .he would won that race if his jockey dont push him to front.

[Millie9509]

@rscarbro100 I'm not sure it's fair to compare any Belmont winner/ loser to Secretariat. He was a monster that day and really shouldn't have been able to win the way he ran. The Bid was a stayer in his own right, this just wasn't his day IMO. The ride didn't help.

[iunstoppable1]

If ridden correctly no doubt he wins. Ran out of gas halfway through the stretch. Unfortunately, this horse simply was not destined to win the Triple Crown. Still, legendary in his own right 26 wins 2 shows 1 place in 30 starts.

[rscarbro100]

If any horse in history that had a bad ride it would have been Secretariat. He ran fractions much faster than The Bid. I mean way faster. Check the record. The difference was Secretariat was a stayer. Delp also made the statement maybe just he is not a 1 1/2 miler. The Bid was a stronger horse as a 4 years old. He is right up there in the top 5 of all time & his record proves it without a doubt. IMHO Man 0' War & Citation would not have a chance against him to a 1 1/4 mile And maybe 1 1/2 mile.

[rscarbro100]

It very odd so many believes the bad ride is why he lost the Belmont. Red Smith '"To the Swift' quoted the words spoken by Delp himself concerning Franklins ride.

Now they were saying that Franklin pulled his mount’s cork by sending him to the front early and going the first mile in 1:36. On the back side, Buddy Delp sipped his beer.

“The kid rode a fine race,” he said again and again.

[sumanmariya]

One of the worst most impatient rides i've ever seen, Spectacular Bid was butchered! Should have won comfortably.

[jkmooreelle]

@thelongshot99 The foot was bothering him. Bid lost 30 lbs after his layoff to recover from the 'pin'.He was lame and never changed leads. Just shows what a great champion he was. Check out SI Vault. They have some awesome articles on The Bid

[thelongshot99]

i have to agree with the ride. although i think the importance of a jockey is generally overrated i wouldve never used Ronnie Franklin on a serious racehorse. You might as well get the best jock if you have a great horse. And I do not believe the "pin" story effected the outcome of this race. Bid was empty in the stretch. If his foot was bothering him he wouldve stopped a lot sooner.

[smartyjonesfan]

@jdavidcole64 This does remind me some of 2004 Smarty Jones Belmont, but Bid took the lead even earlier and his jockey seemed to push him a little harder. It's easy for all of us to sit here and bash the jockeys, but they have to do what they think is going to win them the race, not what might make the most sense to the fans watching.

[rscarbro100]

@playitsafe20 I do not believe the pin was the reason for the loss either. Don't believe the ride was too. The Bid was truly a great horse but at a 1 1/2 mile distance he quite did not measure up IMO as a 3 year old,.But if he ran at that distance at 4 years old I believe he would have been much better.