It doesn't generally work out like a Hollywood motion picture

history channel documentary It doesn't generally work out like a Hollywood motion picture. In 1988 there ought to have been a Triple Crown champ and his name was Risen Star. In the Kentucky Derby that year, under racer Eddie Delahoussaye, Risen Star was compelled to the outside on the backstretch where he stayed until making a charge at the leader of the stretch. Tragically, he was past the point where it is possible to make up all the lost ground to the consequent champ (the filly Winning Colors) and completed third. After two weeks in the Preakness Stakes Risen Star won in the speediest race since his daddy Secretariat's 1973 record time. After three weeks, he flaunted his qualities, pulling far from the field and winning by an astounding 15 lengths in the longest of the Triple Crown races, the tiring 1½ mile Belmont Stakes.

Is it safe to say that it was Delahoussaye's ride that was at issue or would it say it was the movement made by the other 16 steeds in the race? We here in New Orleans are suspicious of the part of Risen Star's coach (and one-time Fair Grounds proprietor) Louis J. Roussel III. Roussel has dependably been somewhat of an agitator and it was firmly reputed he gave Delahoussaye strict guidelines to control Risen Star ahead of schedule no matter what (because of a paranoid fear of wearing out pursuing the filly Winning Colors). To my young eyes, it looked as though Risen Star was much the best stallion in the Kentucky Derby and he essentially came up short on ground. We'll never realize what truly happened, yet there's one thing you can rely on. A racer can lose the Derby in a matter of seconds. Simply ask Eddie Delahoussaye.