According to Brian Hernandez Jr., he was summoning the spirit of Calvin Borel when he rode the rails and squeezed Mystik Dan through a pint-sized hole to make the winning difference in the Kentucky Derby (G1) May 4.
Now, two weeks later, if Hernandez requires similar inspiration at a key point in the Preakness Stakes (G1) May 18, he can go to the video archives and get a load of Miguel Rivera's daring dive aboard Little Current in the 1974 running of the Pimlico Race Course classic. It was a beauty.
"It was the greatest race in my life," said Rivera this week from his Florida home, as he looked back at the events of Preakness day, half a century ago.
On that May 18, 1974, the sport still was recovering from the self-induced trauma of the 100th Kentucky Derby (G1) and its 23-horse field. Surviving riders continued to awaken nights in a cold sweat reliving the wild scramble through the stretch the first time, the clacking of clipped heels as the field accordioned on the far turn, and the G-force from the mad fanning of the front ranks as the field turned for home. Flip Sal, winner of a division of the Wood Memorial Stakes (G1), was injured and pulled up on the backstretch, but of the 22 who finished, none had a more horrific trip than Little Current and Bobby Ussery, who was riding the son of Sea-Bird for the first time.
"There was a lot of close quarters," Ussery said. "I was in trouble the whole way."
Previously, Rivera had ridden Little Current to a fourth-place finish in the Blue Grass Stakes (G1).
"It was Angel Cordero who got me the mount," Rivera said. "He told the trainer I rode the way he like his horses to be ridden."
Cordero had been riding Little Current for trainer Lou Rondinello but was committed to a full card at Aqueduct Racetrack on Blue Grass day. He recommended his pal, a fellow Puerto Rican, as a replacement to trainer Lou Rondinello. Rivera blamed himself for unleashing Little Current's powerful finish too soon in the Blue Grass, but then he had to decline the Derby mount because of a prior commitment to Rube the Great, a winner of a division of the Wood Memorial. Rube the Great clawed his way through the Derby field to finish 10th, while Cordero won the epic contest aboard Cannonade.
No one was happier than Rivera, who carried Cordero into the room that day and celebrated as if he had won the race himself. A giddy Cordero peeled off $3,000 of his winner's share as a gift to Rivera.
It was a flamboyant gesture fitting for the times. Henry Aaron had just hit home run number 715 to surpass Babe Ruth's record. "Blazing Saddles" and its sassy irreverence was tops in movie box office. ABBA won the Eurovision song contest to begin its dark reign on the Billboard charts. And in Washington, D.C., May 9, 1974, the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives began impeachment hearings into charges that President Richard Nixon had committed high crimes and misdemeanors in the coverup of the Watergate break-in.
Nine days later, just up the road in Baltimore, seven Derby runners were joined by six others for the 99th Preakness. The record purse of $209,000 included a $10,000 supplementary fee paid by Irene Udouj for Silver Florin, the Arkansas Derby (G2) runner-up, and Rivera was getting a second chance with Little Current.
Hopes for a calm, clear Preakness after the Derby havoc were dashed at the break when Buck's Bid stumbled and dumped Don MacBeth. The jock was okay and the colt ran off, gleefully lagging with Little Current at the back of the field through the first half of the race.
"I didn't even know there was a loose horse until after the race," Rivera said. "I was on the inside, so I just had to stay there and see what happens. Nobody bothered me, but I had to get lucky. When we got to the quarter pole I said to myself, 'What am I doing here? There's no place for me to go.'"
Approaching the eighth pole, Cordero and Cannonade took a brief lead on the outside. At the same time, Chic Anderson, calling the race for CBS, had Rivera in his sights.
"Along the inside Little Current is finding some room and also coming on," Anderson warned. "Tight quarters on the rail, however."
Tight or not, Rivera was all in. The space between Jolly Johu and the rail was no bigger than the opening Hernandez found inside Track Phantom turning for home in the Derby. Anderson quickly switched gears:
"But Little Current is getting through, and here he comes! They're coming to the finish and Little Current is taking over as they come to the wire. He's drawing away! Little Current is going to be an impressive winner! He's winning it off by himself!"
The official margin was seven lengths, and the final time of 1:54 3/5 was the third fastest in the history of the race. In his post-race appreciation, commentator Heywood Hale Broun noted that for Little Current, "As the gates had all closed for him at the Derby, they all opened for him today."
Little Current and Rivera went on to win the Belmont Stakes (G1) by the same seven-length margin, then soldiered through the summer to lose photo finishes in the Monmouth Invitational Handicap (G1) and Travers Stakes (G1) to the ambitious gelding Holding Pattern. Little Current spotted the winner 10 pounds in one and five pounds in the other. Horse and rider collaborated for the last time in the Lawrence Realization (G2T), in what was designed as a test for a possible trip to France, but Little Current was well beaten and emerged with a career-ending ankle injury. As a consolation, he was voted the 1974 Eclipse Award champion 3-year-old colt.
Rivera retired from riding in early 1993, trained for a number of years, and now works as a talent scout and bloodstock agent with Florida-based trainer Victor Barboza, who ran Grand Mo the First in this year's Derby.
"I'll be 81 in July," Rivera said. "Thanks to god I'm healthy. I take no medications, I walk three miles a day, and I eat one meal a day. But 50 years. Can you believe it?"
Standing alongside Baltimore mayor William Donald Schaefer that day for his televised comments from the winner's stand, as the Darby Dan colors of Mr. and Mrs. John Galbreath were being painted on the Pimlico weather vane, Rivera set the standard for the fulsome expression of heartfelt gratitude in thanking the owners, the trainer, his agent, and Cordero for matching him with Rondinello.
"Now, can I say something in Spanish for my people in Puerto Rico?" Rivera asked.
"You definitely can say something to your people in Puerto Rico," Schaefer replied.
And so Rivera did, sending love to his mother and describing the Preakness as a "lindissima carrera"—the most beautiful race—while securing his place in Preakness history.
"I always regret not staying with my people to celebrate that night, but I was young, and I didn't know yet how important winning the Preakness was," Rivera said. "Cordero had given me a ride to the track, and he asked if I wanted to ride with him back to New York, so I did. Then later that night we went to see Smokey Robinson. I didn't even know who he was."
Never mind. It was already a day full of miracles.
