September 28 through October 4

October 1, 1938 – ‘Blackie the Wonder Horse,’ a twelve year old gelding, swam across San Francisco Bay. He completed the crossing of seven-eighths of a mile in twenty three minutes and fifteen seconds, beating two Olympic Club swimmers. Blackie towed his trainer Shorty Roberts by his tail for the entire duration of the swim, while Shorty’s brother helped to ‘steer’ Blackie by encouraging him with sugar cubes from a rowboat which made the crossing in front of the horse. The two Olympic Club swimmers were hoping to break the twenty minute record for the swim, while Blackie was making the swim just to prove that a horse could complete the crossing.

A movie with actual footage of the event can be seen here: http://www.outsidelands.org/blackiemovie.php

October 3, 1969 – Lindy’s Pride, a three year-old trotter, won the Kentucky Futurity, winning the Triple Crown of trotting. He was the fifth horse in history to do so. Trained and driven by Howard Beissinger, Lindy’s Pride won the “Big Five” in 1969, a series of races consisting of the Hambletonian, the Yonkers Trot, the Kentucky Futurity, The Colonial and the Dexter Cup. Lindy’s pride was voted the Trotting Colt of the Year for 1969.

For more information on Lindy’s Pride, please see: http://www.hambletonian.org/archives_hambo/h_1969.html

October 4, 1989 – Secretariat, the legendary racehorse, was euthanized after battling laminitis. He was diagnosed with the disease on September 4th, 1989, and although he initially improved, he had to be put down after becoming suddenly worse. Secretariat, the Triple Crown winner, had more than three hundred offspring. The statistics of his career are staggering: he was named Horse of the Year in both 1972 and 1973, earned $1,316,808 during his 16-month racing career, and was later syndicated for $6.08 million. He was nineteen years old when he was euthanized.

For an article run by the New York Times on the topic, please see: http://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/05/sports/secretariat-racing-legend-and-fans-favorite-is-dead.html

Photo courtesy of www.BelmontStakes.com