"The Fix" was not in.......

This past weekend was the 132nd running of the Kentucky Derby. The Derby( "daahrbee" as my parents used to pronounce it) was an important sporting event in our family. My Father loved to watch the race along with the two other races that make up the triple crown(the Preakness and the Belmont). He wanted all of us to love what he and many others have called "the most exciting 2 mins in sport".

Derby day at our house was an interactive activity for us as children except for my brother who was too cool for such nonsense. My Dad would make it interesting and fun by putting all of the horses names in one of his fishing hats and having us put up $1 from our allowance as a wager. For some reason our Mother seemed to win quite a few years in a row and looking back on this my sister and I joked that the fix was in between our parents "it was a plot to get our allowance money back".

In May of 1973 "the fix " was not in..... as usual my Dad had written all of the horses names on strips of paper and thrown them in his fishing hat. My Mother was always given first pick and then my sister, myself and then my Dad. We would continue to make our picks out of the hat until we had depleted all of the folded up paper strips from the hat. It had started to get quite dramatic as one particular name had not been pulled out of the hat yet. The hat was passed to me, I put my hand in and moved around the few pieces of paper that were left and pulled out my next pick. I noticed that this particular piece of paper felt thicker than the other folded up choices I had just made. I thought " hmmm this horse must have a really long name" I slowly unraveled the paper and saw the first two letters and I immediately knew the pot of money was going to be mine as there on the strip of paper in my Dad's neat handwriting was the name SECRETARIAT

Secretariat was a revered sports figure in our house. My father loved many sports and loved and respected many great athletes and he considered Secretariat a great athlete. My Dad seemed to have a special fondness for "Big Red". I think he admired Secretariats personality. If you think a horse cannot have a personality trust me this horse did. He seemed to know he was a great horse. He was confident, stubborn and almost swaggered when he walked in the post parades before his races. My father loved strong, honest and confident personalities. For him these were important qualities to have. When Secretariat passed away in 1989 it was one of the few times that my Dad actually called me at work as he wanted to "give me the sad news".

My Dad and I would continue to watch the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont together for many, many years after the "Great Derby Race of 1973". I wasn't always able to get home to watch the Belmont or the Preakness but I always tried to make the time to watch the Derby with my Dad. I guess it was part of his "quality time" with one of his daughters. The Derby along with the Superbowl was the one event we would alway try to watch together each year. Once the field was set, we would go over the names of the entrants and look at which jockey was riding which horse and my Dad would study the bloodlines of the "hot contenders" and of course the odds. I would always ask him "which horse are you liking this year Dad" and he would give me a few names he felt were potential winners but he would always complete that thought with "he looks like a pretty good horse but he's no Secretariat"

My Dad passed away in April of 2004 and I always find myself missing him more than usual during Kentucky Derby weekend. This years winner was Barbaro, a dark bay colt and not an overwhelming favorite. As my Dad would say "he's a pretty good horse but he's no secretariat"