35 Facts About Spectacular Bid

Spectacular Bid was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 1979 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.

Spectacular Bid holds the world record for the fastest 10 furlongs on dirt, and broke several track records.

Spectacular Bid won Eclipse Awards in each of his three racing seasons.

Spectacular Bid was the leading American two-year-old of 1978, winning the Champagne Stakes and the Laurel Futurity.

Spectacular Bid then tried to become the third consecutive Triple Crown winner, but he only came third in the Belmont Stakes after hurting his foot before the race.

Spectacular Bid recovered from the injury to win the Marlboro Cup and confirm his status as the best American colt of his generation.

Spectacular Bid was named American Champion Three-Year-Old Male Horse for 1979.

In 1980 as a four-year-old, Spectacular Bid was undefeated in nine races, and was named American Horse of the Year.

Spectacular Bid was bred at Buck Pond Farm near Lexington, Kentucky by Madelyn Jason and her mother, Mrs William Gilmore.

Spectacular Bid was a very dark gray during his racing career although, like all grays, his coat lightened as he aged, and he eventually took on a "flea-bitten gray" appearance.

Spectacular Bid's sire was Bold Bidder, stakes winner of 13 races who sired the 1974 Kentucky Derby winner, Cannonade.

Spectacular Bid's grandsire was Bold Ruler, a US Racing Hall of Fame inductee and an eight-time Leading sire in North America.

Spectacular Bid's dam was the gray mare Spectacular by Promised Land, who, as a descendant of the broodmare Fly By Night, was a member of the same branch of Thoroughbred Family 2-d which produced the Kentucky Derby winners Northern Dancer and Cannonade.

Spectacular Bid was inbred 3x3 to the stallion To Market, meaning that this horse appears twice in the third generation of his pedigree.

Spectacular Bid notched stakes victories in the Grade III World's Playground Stakes, the Grade I Champagne Stakes, the Young America Stakes, the Grade I Laurel Futurity, and the Heritage Stakes.

Spectacular Bid finished second in the Dover Stakes and had his only out-of-the-money finish in the Tyro Stakes.

Franklin defended himself by claiming that the other riders had colluded to stop Spectacular Bid obtaining a clear run.

Spectacular Bid was the last two-year-old champion to win the Kentucky Derby until Street Sense in 2007.

However, after the discovery of the injury, Spectacular Bid did not seem lame and was entered into the race.

Spectacular Bid held a clear lead entering the stretch but began to struggle and was overtaken by Coastal, who challenged along the inside rail.

Spectacular Bid returned to racing with Hall of Fame jockey Bill Shoemaker, who rode him through most of the remainder of his career.

Spectacular Bid followed this performance with a win at the Marlboro Cup at Belmont Park, beating both horses he had lost to in the Belmont Stakes: Coastal and Golden Act.

Spectacular Bid was scheduled to race in the Marlboro against 1978 Triple Crown winner Affirmed, but Affirmed's owners bowed out of the race in reaction to a 133-pound impost assignment to Affirmed.

Spectacular Bid set five track records at distances of 7,8, and 10 furlongs, and twice at 9 furlongs.

Spectacular Bid carried 126 pounds in each race and defeated Flying Paster each time.

Spectacular Bid ran the distance in 1:20, which stood as a track record for 27 years until Santa Anita removed its dirt track in favor of an artificial surface.

Spectacular Bid made a promising start to his breeding career, but his later record was disappointing.

Spectacular Bid was eventually sold and moved in 1991 to Milfer Farms in Unadilla, New York, where he lived out the remainder of his years, continuing to attract visits and letters from admirers.

Spectacular Bid was never pensioned from stud duty, covering ten mares at a fee of $3,500 in the last year of his life.

Spectacular Bid was sent to stud at Claiborne Farm, which is where Secretariat was sent to stud.

Secretariat did not pay much attention to Drone or Sir Ivor, but he and Spectacular Bid became friendly and occasionally raced each other along the fence line between their paddocks.

Spectacular Bid sired 253 winners, including 47 stakes winners that won more than US$19 million.

Spectacular Bid died from a heart attack on June 9,2003, and was buried at Milfer Farms.

Spectacular Bid was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1982.

The Los Angeles Times quoted jockey Bill Shoemaker as saying that Spectacular Bid was the best horse he ever rode.