Risen Star - 1988 Belmont Stakes (Dave Johnson's ABC-TV Call)

BE109 Says:

Oct 29, 2007 - Secretariat has proven to be an excellent broodmare sire,top sires Storm Cat, Gone West, AP Indy all are out of Secretariat mares. He never produced a really good son to carry on his male line,he also sired the great Lady's Secret,and 55 other stakeswinners. All in all I think he did pretty good.

Jailbirdx Says:

Nov 28, 2007 - You should be thanking Somethingroyal instead of Bold ruler. If it wasn't for her, Secretariat might not be so good....Who knows if Risen Star would be. x)

Danolsu Says:

Feb 4, 2008 - Risen Star, is def. one of the best in the 20th century. A triple crown that got away. WHY because he was trained to come from 15 out of it. First thing Eddie told Louie when he dismounted after the derby " Louie this horse wants to be up close, you are training him all wrong" well we saw what happened after that. Ashame he was retired with really nothing wrong, BC winner I'm sure and no telling how good as a 4 year old. The best I have ever seen, and I watched him as a baby, A very BIG baby.

bon1042 Says:

Feb 9, 2008 - I am SO glad to learn this fm you. What do you mean "fm 15 out of it", trained to come fm 15 lengths behind? I only had read that Risen Star got caught in traffic and/or was very wide. thanks again. Where did you get this info?

cf1970 Says:

Feb 25, 2008 - Danolsu, thank you so very much for the information about The Star. Fascinating to read.Take care.

raygordon Says:

Apr 6, 2008 - Yes, Secretariat DID produce an "alpha" male line. Look up!

raygordon Says:

Apr 6, 2008 - Second-fastest Belmont ever at the time...to his dad.Great horse. Only the Derby misfortune kept him from the Triple Crown. Good sire too.

BE109 Says:

Apr 7, 2008 - I was talking about a son who succeeded in stud to the degree,to keep the Secretariat male line viable as a source of top sires. I was not referring to racing class. Secretariat made a name as sire of top broodmares,some sires are prepotent to that and some are known more for producing top sire sons. Sir Gallahad III was just like Secretariat. The Teddy male line was assumed to be carried on thru sons of SG III,and his bro Bulldog. It wasn't, Sun Teddy was the one,Damascus is his male line heir.

raygordon Says:

Apr 7, 2008 - Without question, Secretariat is a much stronger female influence than male. Secrettame was Gone West's dam and that gave us Elusive Quality and Smarty Jones.It's possible that some dominant male sires may yet emerge from the Risen Star lines, though this is pretty much the last hope. Secretariat also died relatively young (19?).From what I've seen, when you add Secretariat to another top line, it generally strengthens or even evolves.

BE109 Says:

Apr 8, 2008 - Agreed, that is Secretariats legacy as far the future of the breed. Yes it may still be possible for a son(or a grandson) of Risen Star to emerge,but time is running short. Better to seek son and daughter strains of Secretariat to(regardless of pedigree position) sex balance the pedigree. I'm a big believer in Ken Mclean's philosphy on breeding racehorses. Just to clarify, I do not regard Secretariat as a stud failure,he was just more prepotent to producing top broodmares. He did get 57 sw's.

Jude74 Says:

Apr 22, 2008 - Yep, big heart and big stamina comes from Princequillo, his maternal grandpa.

Jailbirdx Says:

Apr 22, 2008 - He was such an awesome broodmare sire because all of his fillies got the X Factor gene from him. They all had larger than average hearts. Not as large as Secretariat himself, but they had the gene, and some of them passed it to their own sons - the top sires, Storm Cat, Gone West, AP Indy.. They didn't do too bad on the track, did they? Think they might've gotten the gene from their dams? :)

Jude74 Says:

Apr 22, 2008 - He was totally undervalued as a sire, his name is all over the pedigrees of the most recent big name sires and stakes winners.

BE109 Says:

Apr 24, 2008 - Correct!,I've said the exact same thing many,many times before,when someone pops off and says Secretariat was a poor sire. Some people look at just the number of stakeswinners,or if he produced runners like himself, That is not likely,Sec's sire Bold Ruler did it but it is very rare when a great racehorse sires something better than him. Many horses have the large heart gene,but it isn't the only factor. Finally from a breeding point of view,it is a key factor for me. Always zero in on mares.

westxlcr Says:

Jun 5, 2008 - Making his dad proud!! Awesome!!

bnegs521 Says:

Jun 15, 2008 - What the hell has happened to Dave Johnson? He was the best.

theonlygeoman Says:

Jun 27, 2008 - Pretty simple, really, when NBC took over coverage of the Triple Crown in 2001, they used Tom Durkin, as he'd been calling the Breeders Cup for them for years.

03Z06vette Says:

Jul 12, 2008 - I mean just How Cool IS THAT! Winning the Belmont in the second fastest time in the history of the race. Second to who?Secretariat! ..... and by the way, he's also my Daddy!Fantastic!!!!!!!!

shorndjakdaa Says:

Jul 21, 2008 - you see, what happened to winning colors in this race against risen star is exactly what would have happened to ruffian if she took on secretariat: the longer the race goes, the more and more lopsided it becomesbut in a short sprint, I think ruffian would have been very competitive - even against a three year old secretariat

NebulizerChi Says:

Aug 1, 2008 - Absolutely eyepopping when he comes flying out of the turn from about 2:42 in. Yikes.I'd be most interested to see the splits of this one --he rocked those final two furlongs.

cf1970 Says:

Aug 4, 2008 - I agree, Risen Star sure made it look easy. He was a strapping 17 HH, so having that big body and carrying 126 pounds in the running time that he did is very impressive indeed.The fractions of this race were: 23 2/5, :47 1/5, 1:11 4/5, 1:36 2/5, 2:01 3/5, 2:26 2/5. The Star ran his final quarter mile in 24 4/5, 1/5 faster than his papa Secretariat did. A remarkable performance, I'd say.Take care.

jhordanian Says:

Aug 17, 2008 - Risen Star was just putting it all together at this time. Who knows how good he could have become? Just imagine Risen Star in the Travers with Forty Niner and Seeking the Gold and then taking on Alysheba in the Breeders Cup Classic!

wabstat Says:

Oct 17, 2008 - I believe that Risen Star would have become a superhorse. He was getting better and better during the spring of '88 and had already beaten 2YO champ Forty Niner at 1 1/16 miles at Keeneland. He wanted classic distances, he could run on dirt or turf and was just growing into his massive frame at the time of his retirement. Alysheba and the '89 crop with Sunday Silence and Easy Goer were great horses, but IMO they all would have played second fiddle to RStar IF he reached his full potential.

ittelotrab Says:

Nov 4, 2008 - If he wouldn't have gotten caught in traffic in the Derby, he would have won the Triple Crown. The jockey took the blame for that one.

bbmtge Says:

Nov 5, 2008 - Excellent point. As far as the Belmont, Risen Star looked like he was out for a Sunday morning jog. He made the time and the distance look incredibly easy. A lot of gas in the tank.