A horse of a diffent color was Sherluck, the 65-1 shot winner of the 1961 Belmont Stakes, the longest priced winner of the race. I was there that day and I recall that I considered him in my pre-race pereginations (the timeworn "shudda-had-'im" horse player's plaint). June 6: Sherluck: The 65-1 Belmont Bonanza Any improver of the breed casting around to make a killing on the Belmont Stakes tomorrow might want to consider some wayward findings unearthed here. Parimutuel betting came to New York in 1940, the year of the 72nd running of the Belmont. If, in the 29 years since then, a plunger had bet $2 on the longest-priced horse in each Belmont, he/she would be ahead by $74.10.
Not a bad betting system, eh sport? Not bad, except there's a catch. There always is. The winnings come from merely one race. In 28 of those 29 Belmont the longest-priced horse finished up the track. In 1961, though, Sherluck, a 65-1 shot, won and paid $132.10. That's one-hundred-and-thirty-two simoleons. The one victory would have made up for all the other losses, while providing a cushion of $74 which would be good for 37 more years of tomfoolery betting on the longest-priced Belmont horse. It could bankroll a $2 bet tomorrow on Prime Fool, Distray or Rooney's Shield, one of whom figures to be the rank outsider in this 101st Belmont. In this short field none of these figures to be anything like 65-1 odds. The thing about Sherluck is that it was a kind of freak that he went off as long as 65-1 in that 1961 race. Harold Young, Sherluck's trainer, says, "I was very much surprised by the odds as we got ready for the race. I thought to myself, 'This is ridiculous.' " Sherluck won the Blue Grass Stakes and then went into the Kentucky Derby the fourth choice at odds of 5½-1. He finished fifth under Eddie Arcaro. Young recalls the horse was making a big move in the stretch until a piece of paper scared him into breaking stride. In the Preakness Sherluck went off at 15-1 and finished a poor fifth under Sammy Boulmetis. Young felt he did not like the Pimlico track. Sherluck then was fourth in the Jersey Derby the Tuesday before the Belmont. Young still had faith in him, Arcaro did not. Arcaro turned down a mount back on Sherluck. He said, "I couldn't see him going a mile-and-a-half, so I went golfing instead. I won $4 in golf bets and blew the $10,000 I would have made riding Sherluck." In the paddock before the Belmont Young fretted about the long odds on his horse. It was as if that long price was an insult to his noble steed. He says, "I couldn't stand that 65-1. I hadn't bet on Sherluck before, but those odds did it. I put $20 on him." The 1961 Belmont was dominated by Carry Back trying for the triple crown. He went off at 4/1 to 5. There were nine horses in the field, the opposition figuring to come from the late-blooming Bal Musette (second choice at 9-1) and Globemaster (17-1) who had been sixth in the Derby and second in the Preakness. Crozier, who had been second in the Derby and third in the Preakness, wasn't in the Belmont; this freed his rider, Braulio Baeza, to ride Sherluck. Globemaster took the early lead, with Sherluck second. They raced together for a mile-and-a-quarter while most spectators waited for Carry Back to make one of his celebrated late charges. Carry Back ran into heavy traffic on the first turn and had a rough trip, never getting up the steam for a challenge. On the turn for home Baeza hustled his horse, and Sherluck pulled away in the middle of the stretch. It was all over but the delerious chortling of those swashbucklers who had bet on Sherluck. He won by more than two lengths over Globemaster with Guadalcanal third and Carry Back seventh. Sherluk had been named for his owner, Joseph Sher, a Miami dog track owner whose wife wedded the word, "luck" with the family name. The owner was so thunderstruck in victory, he could hardly talk at the presentation ceremony presided over by former President Eisenhower. Young accepted congratulations while thinking that his $20 bet had netted him $1,301. Sherluck went on to win the mile-and-five-eighths Lawrence Realization Stakes. Three-year-old honors for the year went to Carry Back. Sherluck is now at stud in France and has been quite successful. They say the Belmont is the "Test of the Champion." Anybody who bet on Sherluck that day no doubt remembers him as fondly as Young does; a horse who wins for you at 65-1 passes every person's test of the champion. An addendum to the above: no longer-priced horse in the race has won the Belmont Stakes since Sherluck.
The Belmont has always been my favorite race, because it is a mile-and-a-half, longer than any of the other Triple Crown races, long enough to see a developing drama, and it is a New York race. I saw my first Belmont in 1944, won by Bounding Home. I was 16 at a time when you had to be 18 or more to be allowed entrance to New York race tracks. My cousin Moey put a fedora on me and hustled me through the turnstile. The attendant, smiling, said, "I see him under that hat" but let me through. I saw almost every Belmont starting with Counterpoint in 1951. I covered many Kentucky Derbies and Preaknesses and occasionally bet the winner of those races. But year after year I couldn't pick a winner of the race I loved most, the Belmont. In 1973 I decided I would break my jinx by betting on the near-sure thing, Secretariat. I figured that my bet might be the biggest load Secretariat might have to carry. He won of course and I broke my losing streak. I cashed my $2 bet. I should have kept the ticket as a souvenir. Secretariat's 32-length victory in the Belmont is one of the classics of racing. I was sports editor of Newsday at the time and thought people were carrying on a bit too much about his victory. I wrote a short piece arguing that he might not have had much opposition. To embellish my point, I noted that Secretariat's time for the race was not that much faster than the time turned in earlier that day by a horse I called a "serviceable allowance horse." That serviceable allowance horse was named Forego, who developed into one of the great geldings of all time. Bill Nack, Newsday's peerless racing reporter at the time, has never stopped kidding me about "the serviceable allowance horse."
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A genius is the man who bet on the winner of the last race. |
The Continuing Saga Of Paul Revere's Horse 
