So, I don’t know anything, and I mean ANYTHING, about sports. Don’t let my big shoulders confuse you, I know nothing about sports. It’s just not something I’ve ever really been interested in. I mean, I can get sucked into watching a football game if it’s on or a good sports movie about overcoming crazy adversity, but I never go out of my way to catch a game. I don’t even have much interest in going to live sporting events.
I did go see my cousin, Aaron, play basketball when he was in high school a few times and it was pretty exciting, what I understood at least. Though I may be partial because he’s my dude. But again, sports just aren’t really my thing.
I have a lot of friends that love sports. They know every stat, every player, and predict the results of baseball games, basketball games, football games, and even horse races. Now, that last one is definitely not something I would have ever found interest in. I’ve never seen Seabiscuit and admittedly, never had much interest to. Even though I’ve heard, and I’m sure, it’s a great movie.
Yesterday while at my usual Sunday morning cafe stop, a couple friends, Dan and Jack, were talking about a recent horse race. Apparently, The Preakness was on Saturday, which is one of the big three horse races. And even I’ve heard of these: The Kentucky Derby, The Preakness, and Belmont Stakes. Again, my mind drifted.
Until they started talking about a particular horse from 1973 named, Secretariat.
What really caught my ear was that Jack had mentioned Secretariat’s heart was about three times the size of a usual thorough-bred horse’s heart. Being that I write on the topics that I write about and hearing this story about a champion horse that broke crazy records, doing things never done before, like being the only animal to make a top 100 list of athletes, and hearing that this champion had a bigger heart than his competition, well that’s just a recipe for an inspiring blog. Disney thought so too but they made it into a movie in 2010.
Secretariat won the Triple Crown, which means he won all three of those races I mentioned before back-to-back. But when he won the Belmont, it wasn’t by a nose. He won by 31 lengths. To give perspective of what that means…
“…most impressive was the 31-length gap. It was so big, even the widest angle of the CBS camera covering the stretch run could barely show Secretariat in the same shot as the next-nearest horse, Twice A Prince. As Charles Hatton wrote in The Daily Racing Form, ‘His only point of reference is himself.’”
Secretariat appeared on Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated covers all in the same week. This horse is labeled as the greatest racing horse in history by various sources and has captured the interest and imagination of countless people. Including myself, someone void of sports knowledge, understanding, or interest.
Is it coincidence that a reputation such as this belongs to a thorough-bred that had a heart three-times the regular size? I think this is a literal testament to the fact that a big heart will win any race and do what seems completely unnatural and impossible to hearts that stare on. The size of the hearts that simply gaze all remain the same.
The man that has what seems to be limitless ability but is without heart, will fall every time to the one that seems unlikely to prevail but has all of his heart invested. A heart used to its fullest capacity will win the day every day.
Big thanks to my friends Dan Insogna and Jack May for learning me some sports.
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