1970 Belmont Stakes - Live Call

This year marks the 50th Anniversary of High Echelon's dramatic victory in the 1970 Belmont Stakes. Please enjoy this trip down memory lane with the live call of this dramatic race as it actually aired across America five decades ago. The legenday Chic Anderson calls the action. No ownership of this material is claimed.

[@brucemarshal4866]

Dramatic race made all the more memorable by Chic Anderson's great call. Watched this at Hollywood Park, they connected to the CBS feed for a handful of TVs at the track. We raced to get in front of the sets when Harry Henson told the crowd the Belmont would be on select TVs in the grandstand area in the next few few minutes. This is how a race-caller ought to do it, calmly describing the action, not talking over the crowd noise, then complementing that roar as it reaches its crescendo while this thunderous stretch drive moved toward the wire (the mud and slow going made it almost seem like it was unfolding in slow-motion, all the better for the drama). You didn't even need to be watching to know what was going on in the stretch, just listening to Anderson would clue you to the action. Chic sounded like he was ordering a cup of coffee for the first half of the race, just calmly lining up the horses, before upping it a few amps as action dictated later in the race. This is how the great Ray Scott used to do it in football, no need to out-shout the crowd, we can all see what is going on. Complement what the viewers are watching...no need to dominate it. That's all the situation dictates. Chic was as good as it ever got calling the races, much enjoyed him at CBS from 1969-78, and when he took over at Santa Anita for a few years in the 70s. The story was that he learned his calm style at Keeneland, which didn't have a race-caller, but Chic was in the booth just telling the tote board operator the order of the horses and their numbers, which would show up on the tote as the race progressed. Chic's Secretariat Belmont call was memorable of course, but I think this Belmont was a better call, and of course 1978 with Affirmed and Alydar. What other race caller would ever come up with "We'll test these two to the wire!" ? You were the best, Chic...

[@MCham52]

Chic Anderson was indeed the best ever to call horse racing. My hero in my profession to this day!!

[@brucemarshal4866]

@@MCham52 Yes good to hear from you Michael, outstanding work at Harrah's Hoosier! Glad to get your response in the spirit the original post was intended, to highlight the special qualities of Chic Anderson. Great that you can appreciate that outstanding call of the 1970 Belmont in the slop that was pure Chic. The time of that Belmont with a s-l-o-w pace in the slop, and the quality of the field, are all incidental to the original post, it was indeed a pulsating race made more so by Anderson's cultured delivery. It remains a race-call masterpiece, as were Chic's calls of the '73 and '78 Belmonts. He was and always will be the best!

[@WaltGekko]

While on camera it appeared dramatic, in reality High Echelon quit the least of this bunch as the last half was in :54 1/5 and the last quarter was in :27 1/5. The time of 2:34 for 1 1/2 Miles is STILL the slowest Belmont stakes EVER and the 1970 crop of three year olds (foals of 1967) is STILL considered THE WORST of all time with the 1971 (foals of 1968) crop not very far behind and Justify's crop in 2018 (foals of 2015) third worst of all time.

[@brucemarshal4866]

@@WaltGekko Walt, it's apples and oranges here, drama and top quality are not always mixed. One of the most dramatic football games I ever saw was between bad teams in 1968 (Bills and Broncos) and one of the greatest finishes in history. Even more dramatic for me might have been on the college side, the Tulsa at Nevada game I saw in 2004...not great teams, but wild and thrilling beyond belief! Remember, that was also heavy rain and a heavy mud track at Belmont that day in June of '70 which slowed the time even further...but who cares? It was a dramatic race called perfectly by Chic Anderson, and if you liked watching horse racing on TV, it was very good fun!

[@WaltGekko]

​@@brucemarshal4866 This is widely considered THE WORST Belmont of all time at 1 1/2 Miles (excluding the bastardized 2020 Belmont NYRA was forced to run at 1 1/8 Miles because otherwise, it would have been Tiz The Law vs. 3-4 tomato cans with the threat of a wealthy individual wanting to kill New York racing wagering enough to trigger an eight-figure minus WIN pool and bankrupting NYRA or NYRA having to run it as a non-betting race because of such a threat). EVERYONE QUIT in that race, it was just High Echelon quit the least. This also was a very bad Belmont because Dust Commander, the Derby winner didn't even enter and Personality. the Preakness winner scratched. The most dramatic race I ever saw was the 1976 Marlboro Cup when Forego, carrying 137 pounds just got up to win over Honest Pleasure, who was carrying 119.

[@bunpeishiratori5849]

I guess that Secretariat was a baby when this race was run. No one watching this race knew that the greatest horse they would ever see was just over the horizon.

[@bobfritz1466]

This is the first horse race I ever remember watching. Thanks for posting.

[@hamburg1306]

John L. Rotz famous New York jockey.

[@stewartberger7734]

Brilliant race call

[@georgevila1778]

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE 1970 PREAKNESS STAKES ? PLEASE SOMEBODY TELL ME.

[@hamburg1306]

You can hear Cappy calling the race in the background.

[@javierreyes7331]

Abuelo de vuelve candy b

[@WaltGekko]

While the win was dramatic, it was against what is still widely considered THE WORST crop of three year olds in the history of the sport. High Echelon needed 2:34 to win this Belmont, by far the slowest at 1 1/2 Miles.

[@WaltGekko]

ALL of the horses were quitting in the stretch, High Echelon quit the least. The last half was in :54 1/5 and the last quarter in :27 1/5.

[@TaofiaKukaPiliatiLeaitu]

Taofia Kuka Piliati Leaitu Tamalagi.

[@kevinevans5921]

2:34 yikes that’s slow, although track was sloppy

[@WaltGekko]

Last half in :54 1/5, last quarter in :27 1/5. The 1970 crop of three year olds (foals of 1967) is widely considered THE WORST three year old crop of all time with 1971 (foals of 1968) not too far behind. Justify's crop in 2018 (foals of 2015) is considered by many to be barely better than those two crops, and that was only because of what Vino Rosso did later on.

[@kevinevans5921]

@@WaltGekko interesting, didn’t know that. Well the upcoming 70’s sure made up for it!

[@blueshark3098]

@@WaltGekko I always thought the same way about the 1970 crop. And objectively, it's true. But I got a great deal of pleasure watching this race. High Echelon was visually impressive in the way he won, and the sloppy track certainly didn't help the final time. Now that I have TVG/Fan Duel TV, I realize that even bad horses can be really fun to watch. The drama is the same, even if they are running slower.

[@hamburg1306]

Only 10 seconds slower than secretariat. I’ll give them some leeway for the sloppy track.

[@khalfani414]

lmao it's a ridiculously slow time, sloppy track or not - horses that do well in the slop can set track and distance records even in very poor track conditions

[@jmarlow2153]

Sloppy tracks can be fast