News that I’ll Have Another has been scratched from the Belmont certainly takes the excitement out of the last leg of what could have been a Triple Crown. The colt was not only scratched from the Belmont but retired from racing, this because of tendinitis in the left front one of his mighty legs. The announcement was made this afternoon by his trainer, Douglas O’Neill. We don’t mind saying we found the news to be sad.

It leaves us thinking of what it takes to gain the crown. So as a public service we offer the link to the Youtube.com video of the race in which Secretariat galloped to glory at a speed and by a margin that has never been approached. We’ve always thrilled to that race, much along the lines the editor of the Sun sketched when he reviewed the movie “Secretariat.” The movie does a great job of telling the Secretariat story, but even the greatest of directors would have a hard time matching the real thing.

The race was called by Charles David “Chic” Anderson on June 9, 1973. There were only five steeds on the track, and it really boiled down to a match race between Secretariat and an organism that, had it not been running next to Secretariat, would have been called a horse. Its name was Sham. On the video, one can see Sham and Secretariat running more or less along aside each other and well ahead of the other horses until they’re clattering down the back stretch. At that point, the camera is following them by panning across the whole track and infield. Near the half way point they come to a moment when they are obscured by an American flag.

It seems like going into that fleeting flag moment, Sham still had a chance to win the race — were he not racing against the equine equivalent of a god. But when they come out from behind that flag and into the view of the camera again, it’s like some surreal spirit has come down onto the track as Secretariat starts to pull away. “It looks like he’s opening,” Anderson says. “The lead is increasing.” He announces Secretariat is three lengths in front but immidateluy says “make it three and a half.” Then the famous call:

“They’re on the turn . . . Secretariat is blazing along, the first three quarters of a mile in one oh nine and four fifths . . . Secretariat is WI-dening now . . . he is moving like a tree-MEN-dous machine . . . Secretariat by 12 . . . Secretariat by 14 lengths on the turn . . . Secretariat is all alone . . . He’s out there almost a sixteenth of a mile away from the rest of the horses. Secretariat is in a position that he’s impossible to catch . . . He’s into the stretch. . . . Secretariat leads the field by 18 lengths . . . They’re in the stretch. . . . Secretariat has opened a 22-length lead. He . . . is . . . going . . . to . . . be . . . the . . . Triple . . . Crown . . . Winner. . . . Here comes Secretariat to the wire, an unbelievable, an amazing performance, he hits the finish 25 lengths in front.”

It was, it turns out, 31 lengths. One of the things one can sense, even somewhat on the Youtube, is the emotions all this unleashed in the crowd. Our movie reviewer quoted a series of interviews on the Internet, including one in which Jack Whitaker of CBS speaks of people starting to weep. “On the same clip George Plimpton recalls: ‘There were these coeds lining the rail. This sounds hard to believe, but I swear, half of them were weeping as he went by.’ Heywood Hale Broun relates that Jack Nicklaus told him of how, when he watched it from home, even the great golfer himself broke into tears.”

* * *

We have reflected on that fact a number of times. Why were all those people weeping as the great horse thundered past. Others have speculated that the reason is that it was the impact of seeing perfection. Maybe, but people don’t start bawling at the Winged Victory, say, or the Venus of Milo. Our own thinking goes to the sheer scale of the thing. People thought he could win. People thought he couldn’t win. But no one thought he would win by 31 lengths, by a margin that may actually stand until the end of the world. Newspapers are taught to avoid saying “never” and we won’t break the rule. But we’ll acknowledge the possibility that what happened in 1973 at the Belmont may stand until the end of time, a prospect that transported all who saw it and that maybe will bring a bit of a lift to those who’d been hoping for I’ll Have Another. Have another, indeed.