Risen Star - 1988 Belmont Stakes (Dave Johnson's ABC-TV Call)

"Risen Star takes the Belmont just like his daddy Secretariat did!"

Risen Star was a star indeed. With any decent trip in the Kentucky Derby he would have won, perhaps going away. Great Preakness run. But his Belmont was spectacular. A worthy son of Secretariat. But to those who note he ran the final 1/4 mile 1/5th second faster than his father . . . that was after Secretariat had run the preceding 1 1/4 mile a full 13 lengths faster than Risen Star had. Risen Star beat the field by 18 lengths, but Secretariat would have crushed Risen Star by 12 lengths in this race. Risen Star was an exceptional horse. Secretariat was Pegasus.

Risen Star - you made your Dad Proud! what a race! He was a big, beautiful Son of Sec!

I love how the announcer says Risen Star looks like his daddy 2:52

Excellent point. As far as the Belmont, Risen Star looked like he was out for a Sunday morning jog. He made the time and the distance look incredibly easy. A lot of gas in the tank.

The more time goes by the more impressive that Secretariat time of 2:24 is. The closest to that are Easy Goer 2:26 and Risen Star 2:26 2/5 and those aren't even close. That just might the greatest performance in the history of sports.

Like father like son.

"And down the stretch they come!" Ya just have to love Dave Johnson and his calling of these great races.

Seen this race in 1988 just like the one in 1973 gives you that same feeling of suspense toward the end an unbeleavable finish!!!

In many ways the race looks like his father's race, albeit not winning by the same margin, but still a large margin, and just pulls away from the field towards the end. Shame he got boxed in at the Kentucky or we could have had another Triple Crown winner, and to be the son of the great Secretariat, what a great story that could have been! Risen Star, largely overlooked in talk of the best of all time. By the way, the SECOND fastest in Belmont history... and the great one's son, go figure, lol.

I never get tired of watching this race cf ! Watching Risen Star and listening to Dave Johnson's call in this thrilling race absolutely makes my day :) I want to thank you again for giving us the opportunity to watch this excellent footage :)

Steven Crist in the New York Times (July 5, 1988) wrote "The drama surrounding Risen Star these days is a familiar one, a set piece played in four acts: Horse gets good. Horse gets syndicated. Horse gets hurt. Horse gets retired." Injury didn't end Risen Star's career, the ankle problem was one for which the prognosis was good, it was syndication that did the horse in. Racing needs heroes to succeed and retiring top horses at 3yrs has severely hurt it.

It's a terrible shame that this guy didn't get on the top 100 list. He never finished out of the money in eleven starts!

Risen Star is buried next to Sham.

He really did look like his sire, similar build and speed. Wow.

Making his dad proud!! Awesome!!

I love watching this video!Great race and I love to hear Dave Johnson say" He looks like his Daddy at this point!"Thanks for posting!

He was totally undervalued as a sire, his name is all over the pedigrees of the most recent big name sires and stakes winners.

I love the way Sports Illustrated described this race. It said Risen Star won this race in "the swashbuckling style reminiscent of the old man himself." The day before this race Risen Star galloped a mile and finished off the last 3/8 mile in 33 3/5, the fastest last minute zinger ever recorded at Belmont Park at that time.

How much I love this horse I am amazed how he just laid back, toyed with the others then poured it on when he was asked to...no disrespect on Winning Colors, she took the Derby, a notoriously hard race to navigate, it's to her credit and maturity she ran it so flawlessly. RiP Star and Winning Colors ♥ ❤