Post time for today’s running of the Belmont Stakes, the 145^th running of the 1½ mile-long Grade 1 stakes race and final leg of the triple crown, is 6:36 p.m. With the Kentucky Derby won by Orb, the morning-line favorite in today’s race at 3-1, and Oxbow, going off this morning at 5-1, winning the Preakness, we’ll have to wait at least another year for a horse to make a run at the Triple Crown. No horse has won it since Affirmed took the crown in 1978, but several fine thoroughbreds have had a shot at it, winning in Louisville and Baltimore, only to falter in New York. Among others, in successive years in the late 90s, Silver Charm, Real Quiet, and Charismatic all left Belmont with their hopes of entering the thoroughbred pantheon dashed. I was there in Queens to cheer them on, as I cheered for my grandfather’s horse, the 1976 Belmont winner, Bold Forbes, as well as Secretariat in the 1973 Belmont. Tomorrow, June 9, marks the fortieth anniversary of one the greatest moments in the history of sports.

Unpacking boxes after moving into a new home, I found a souvenir of the race, one of three winning $2 tickets that my father had bought for me and my two brothers. Had he cashed it in, it would’ve paid only $2.20 since as the heavy favorite Secretariat had gone off at 1-10. Bettors left thousands uncollected that afternoon, just to hold on to winning tickets as mementoes of Big Red’s triumph. Winning by 31 lengths, he ran the 1½ mile course in 2:24, still a Belmont and world record.