Monday, June 16, 2003 | 10:09 a.m.
Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday and his Southern California selections run Tuesday-Sunday.
When Funny Cide failed to win the Triple Crown a week ago, he became the 19th Derby-Preakness victor to come up short in the Belmont Stakes.
Since Sir Barton did it first in 1919, 30 horses have come into the Belmont Stakes with a Triple Crown on the line and only 11 have been successful in completing the longest and most demanding test of champions.
We have been disappointed frequently in recent years. Funny Cide represented the fifth time in the past six years that a horse has tried to become number 12. Silver Charm in 1997, followed by Real Quiet the next year then Charismatic in 1999 and War Emblem last year led to Funny Cide this year.
The Triple Crown is truly reserved for the great ones.
In a curious twist of fate, one of the most deserving runners who ever failed to win the Triple Crown died just two days after Funny Cide's attempt.
Spectacular Bid, who was victorious in the same two-thirds of the 1979 Triple Crown before his fate was sealed by stepping on a safety pin in his stall the morning of the Belmont Stakes, died of a heart attack at age 27 last Monday. He passed away at Dr. Jonathan Davis' Milfer Farm in Unadilla, N.Y., where he is now buried.
A champion at ages 2, 3 and 4, Spectacular Bid became the dominant horse of the 1980s while starting his racing career in the previous decade that graced the racing careers of Triple Crown winners Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed.
Sold for $37,000 at Keeneland's September sales, the steel gray son of Bold Bidder showed his talent early in a career that spanned 30 races. Trainer Grover "Buddy" Delp knew he had something special before his debut victory June 30, 1978, when apprentice jockey Ronnie Franklin returned from a sizzling workout aboard Spectacular Bid and told the trainer, "Boss, I feel like I have two horses under me."
In his third career start, the horse that would become known as "The Bid" had his worst lifetime finish while fourth in a stakes race at Monmouth Park, N.J. A following runner-up effort in a Delaware Park stakes race would be the last time Spectacular Bid lost a race until his third-place finish in the Belmont Stakes as a 3-year-old on June 9, 1979.
He reeled off 12 consecutive victories from Sept. 23, 1978, through his Preakness Stakes win on May 19, 1979.
The Hawksworth Farm color bearer prompted Delp to declare that Spectacular Bid was "the best horse to ever look through a bridle" and, but for a runner-up finish to the older Affirmed in a vintage renewal of the Jockey Club Gold Cup of 1979, he never lost another race.
Spectacular Bid got a new partner following his Belmont bust when Delp replaced the inexperienced Franklin with the great Bill Shoemaker. Together, they were unbeatable in 1980.
Starting with the Malibu Stakes in January at Santa Anita, The Bid and The Shoe combined to win nine stakes races that year. Spectacular Bid swept through the prestigious Strub Series before capping his Santa Anita stay by winning the hardest handicap race to win in America.
In winning the Santa Anita Handicap, Spectacular Bid had conquered his West Coast nemesis, Flying Paster, for the fourth consecutive time. It would be the last. As he moved through victories in the Mervyn LeRoy Stakes and Californian at Hollywood Park, Delp decided to take The Bid on the road.
A 10-length score in the Washington Handicap at Arlington Park in Chicago in July gave way to a return visit at Monmouth Park. This time, as a mature 4-year-old, The Bid took a measured victory in the Haskell Handicap at 10 cents to the dollar.
By the time Spectacular Bid rolled into the Big Apple for the fall classics, no one wanted to take on the Meyerhoff family monster.
On Sept. 20, 1980, there was no one left to beat. The Bid showed up to contest the Grade I Woodward Stakes at Belmont Park and found himself alone in the starting gate. In the last "walkover" in a major stakes race, all The Bid had to do was cover the distance of the race to get the money.
Shoemaker joked with the outrider before the exhibition. "If I fall off, catch him and bring him back to me, and I'll get back on him," he said.
Of course, Spectacular Bid never did anything to suggest his name was other than genuine, so he ran the 1 1/4 miles -- alone and unopposed -- in 2:02:3.
Shoemaker would later say that Spectacular Bid was the best horse he ever rode.
He retired as the 1980 Horse Of The Year with a lifetime record of 26 wins from 30 starts for earnings of $2,781,608. He equaled or broke eight track records and won 22 Graded stakes races. From 20 crops of offspring to race so far, his progeny have earned more than $21 million.
The only thing missing from a Spectacular career is that elusive Triple Crown trophy.
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