Real Quiet And The Worst Beat In Racing History

I think one of the toughest losses I have ever seen would have to be the BC Mile with Rock of Gilbralter. The Rock to me was clearly the best horse in that race and he came from dead last comming home and had to run around a fallen horse that unfortunatly died and closed like a true champ. Unfortunatly the race was a mile and not a mile and 50 yards. But thats horse racing for you.... the best horse...... doesnt always win.

By a nose...by a heartbreak...one less Triple Crown winner that should have been. Real Quiet...you will be missed, but your brilliance will never fade.

It is laughable to suggest RQ would have been taken down and denied the TC. Heck, they'd probably give it to him now just to try to revive interest in the sport. I also think it debatable that RQ was better at longer distances. His best races, like the Hollywood Futurity and the Preakness, were at shorter distances. He was almost caught in the Derby and wobbly by the Belmont finish (yeah, all the armchair jockeys will blame Desormeaux - again). And Midnight Lute is his son.

Yep, Kent should have broke TWO INCHES later. Sure is easy to ride a racehorse from a living room chair.

Real Quiet had the win until KD quit riding him. One of the worst jockey rides I ever saw. I still get aggravated when I think about it. Real Quiet should have been in the history books.

R.I.P. "The Fish" I was there on this Belmont Day (as I was for Silver Charm and Charismatic's TC tries) and remember being in absolute tears when the OFFICIAL came up. The place absolutely GROANED. But it endeared RQ in my heart forever and it was a fun ride with Baffert and Pegram. How horrible his death must have been, falling in his paddock with his shoulder ripping into his spinal cord.

Real Quiet was the kind of distance horse not popular in this country anymore. As another poster said, not so good at less than 9f. "The Fish" was old fashioned but won at the top level every year he raced in the few races at distances that suited him. Worthy of winning the TC? Well, there is only one measure of that and Real Quiet came closer than any other horse. He came so close! He was definitely the best of his generation at classic distances. As a sire he didn't produce precocious offspring, if his line continues it will be through Midnight Lute who was not very like him. Funny, he would have been better off in Japan instead of War Emblem. Bad timing again!

Yes I remember this race and I was heartbroken because I've never seen a triple crown winner, and I used to love Real Quiet and saw him race at Hollywood Park....but even if Kent moved too soon, if a horse is truely great enough he can still win..like Secretariat...thats why they run the races...

He would have been disqualified. Desormeaux knew he was caught and did everything he could to win the 5 million bonus. Good effort by Kent. Another bad beat was captain bodgit in the derby. how he didn't blow by silver charm in the stretch is still a head scratcher. And one more for the hard core fan was powerscourt in the arlington million. had him for a 4k pick 4 and the rest is history. brutal. needless to say i am not a big jamie spencer fan.

Lets not forget that Real Quiet battled bravely to get the place money in the New Orleans Handicap when he came back as a 4 year old off a long layoff and lost to millionaire Precocity. He also won the Hollywood Gold Cup against Malek, Budroyale, and Puerto Madero when pinned on the rail until the final 1/8th mile. He also showed tremendous class by out dueling the awesome Freehouse in the Pimlico Special. Can you imagine the 1999 Pacific Classic if Real Quiet and Victory Gallop hadn't both been injured and retired? It would have been a classic and I think Real Quiet is very underrated in history. He certainly proved at 4 that he was no fluke.

if anyone actually believes they would have taken RQ down and denied a triple crown is insane

Tough beat, but short price. Worst beat of all time was Swain, who Dettorri butchered in the Classic.

Real Quiet had the guts and heart of a Champion and was one of the greatest of all time in my opinion....I think he waited on VG in the Belmont and the rest is history. Thank you DRF, RQ, VG, and of course Mr. Tom Durkin for the memory of a truely great event in our sport....RIP Real Quiet....

Thank the ghosts of Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Citation for Victory Gallop's win. Real Quiet was not worthy of being a Triple Crown winner. Did he ever win again after the Belmont?

come on folks , in the close up of RQ in the srtch u can see good ole KD flapping the reins instead of the stick a KD trait that cost him many big races and a lot of monts down the road. It was typical KD ego loss . he doesn'tdo that any more since he learned how to bend his elbow and remember what the stick is for, CHEERS

the belmont was a winnable race. kent moved a bit early and should have tried to stay off the rail in the stretch rather than creating a passing lane for vg. tough to do though because real quiet liked to duck toward the inside.

it was our 1st year together, my wife and I, she picked Real Quiet, i had Victory Gallop on Derby Day. The sweet exacta outweighed the harsh reality that she was right and I was wrong, the one and only time I can remember admitting such a thing to her. The Belmont was a bittersweet race for me because i stuck with VG, revenge was mine, and so was the couch for quite some time! just a side note, Big Brown's Triple Crown flop-Real Quiet's much too early move in his Triple Crown bid. Common denominator? Can you say Kent D? For SHAME!!!

Real Quiet has long been my favorite horse.He was my top pick in the Derby and I was delighted to see him go off at 8-1.I did not think much of VG because I didn't like Favorite Trick but I managed to hit the tri and super at inflated prices.My money went into a seperate pool at Sportsmans Park which paid more than at Churchill.I was expecting about 3k and won almost 5k.He looked long gone in the stretch of the Belmont but was obviously tiring when VG came at him, yet he showed great courage trying to hold VG off.I seem to remeber reading that the stewards said they would've taken him down but it would not have been the worst non dq of the century,or even the last month or two.Yes he lost to those BB horses but he beat a pretty nice horse in Free House. Maybe he wasn't a great horse but he was a very good one and will always be great in my mind and heart.

Was one of the 2 worst beats i have seen and both were Jockey error. Kent D. thought he was riding Secretariat that day and moved to soon. The worst beat I have seen was on Breeders Cup day when Alex Solis stopped riding Hawksley Hill in the Mile after he passed DaHoss.

Well, sadly i find myself stating what seemed obvious to us all then and now. Kent for SURE moved Real Quiet way too early. If he would have just sat on him and not moved and let Real Quiet relax, as he could have, Real Quiet would have won the triple crown. The next obvious observation both then and now is, since he moved early and VG and Stevens got to him... THANK the racing Gods that VG got by, because clearly Real Quiet would of had to been taken down and disqualified , Real Quiet did in fact interfere with VG, and rightly would have had to be taken down. Having said that, it did show us all at the time the greatness of Bob Baffert, that he almost pulled off winning the triple crown with what we all would agree was a good, but NOT near great 3 year old, Real Quiet. I would like to mention that I had the pleasure of visiting Bob Baffert's barn in California the next year, and I got to stand and PET both Real Quiet and Silver Charm at the SAME TIME..... Bob had them stabled next to each other, and my good friend Tom Metzger took a picture of me petting them both. I have it framed here at home, and , for me it was an honor to even look at two Kentucky Derby winners at once, let alone pet them, while they were still both in training. Good luck to everyone at the BC this year !!!!!!!!!!

To Felix T, I feel your pain now, as I felt it years ago. The excuse given made it that much worse!! Jim L

Real Quiet was the real deal. Victory Gallop was a worthy adversary, but Real Quiet was definitely the more dominant of the two. Very sorry to hear the news of his early passing today. He was, in fact, a great horse. A deserving, hard charging champion and the closest thing we've seen to a Triple Crown Winner in a long time. To all his connections throughout the years... so sorry for you and thanks for the all the excitement, victories and lifelong memories.

I didn't need to be reminded that I had bet on Grand Slam (but Durkin is the best!)

I have always been a big fan of Real Quiet. He gave me a very nice exacta when he won the Derby with Victory Gallop second. I just want to say that he got beat for the Triple Crown by another very talented horse. I always felt that the longer the distance, the tougher Victory Gallop was. So it is not like the Belmont was not genuine and fair and square. Nevertheless, it is sad to hear that Real Quiet has passed at such a relatively early age.

Did VG even go by him ? Maybe that's how the stewards got out of having to DQ a TC winner,by giving the photo to VG.

Definite DQ ??? Thank goodness you guys aren't stewards!! No way would he have been taken down.... there was no contact. He veered out a tad 70 yards out, but not enough for a DQ

From my personally biased perspective, I always felt that Real Quiet holding off Victory Gallop in the Derby was the worst beat. I had VG for literally everything, sizable win bet and every exotic, at 16.60 to 1. VG had a remarkably horrendous trip, and still made an absolutely titanic closing run. I recall reading that the Sheets guys had VG's Derby as one of the fastest in history taking into account ground loss. It would have been nice if Solis helped even a little bit. His '99 Foster though is still one of my favorite races. Bailey said something to the effect that VG's move on the turn was the most powerful of any horse he'd ever ridden. So I certainly wasn't weeping when VG ran down RQ inexorably in that Belmont. It is still amazing to watch though. Later when RQ lost to the two Bobby Barnett horses, it became clear that he really wasn't a great horse, a very good one surely, but not great. Anyway, RIP RQ, you did it well.

Always thought Kent moved way too soon.

That wasn't even the worst beat that year. Ask anyone who bet on Swain in the Breeders Cup Classic what was.

Only reason it wasn't the worst beat of all time is that he probably would've been taken down if he had won the photo. That seems to get lost in the story with that race. He was certainly an overachiever though. A Grade 1 winner at 2, 3 and 4. Don't see that much.

Let's face it, though. This "bad beat" was actually a blessing for racing. Based on the head-on replay, the objection sign would have certainly gone up and NYRA stewards would have been in the unenviable position of having to DQ a Triple Crown winner or would have had to leave him up and explain how the Triple Crown winner was allowed to get away with a pretty clear foul against the runner up.

The "real" question, even after all of these years is whether or not Kent Desormeaux moved too early.

Let's not ignore the fact he clobbered Victory Gallop in the stretch run. If he had won and it had been any other race, the stewards would have taken him down in 30 seconds. (MW: But this Belmont wasn't just any other race. Who really thinks Real Quiet would have actually been taken down if he had won that photo?)

Who but the incomparable Tom Durkin could make such a call ... unscripted ... unrehearsed ... off the top of his head? Thanks for reminding me yet again why he simply is the best the game has ever known ... and likely ever will!

I still think he won the Belmont, no matter how many times I see the photo.

Are we sure Real Quiet did not win that race? Everytime I see it; I wonder. Mike you are correct; there are tough beats; there are really tough beats and then there are Real Quiet beats...another moment when you mind questions what your eyes saw...may he rest in peace