Sports : Friday, June 04, 1999 

      25 years after electrifying Belmont win, Little Current takes it easy in 
Monroe 

      by Dick Rockne
      Seattle Times staff reporter
       
      MONROE - The tail doesn't fly so well anymore. 

      The slightly swayed back gives the impression that advanced age is as 
detectable in a beast as it is in man. 

      But it's a discussion of horseshoes that cements the realization that at 
28 years old, Little Current, winner of the Belmont Stakes and Preakness 25 
years ago, is no 3-year-old. 

      "These shoes are a lot more comfortable for him," Mark Hansen said, 
showing the soft, green equine equivalent of senior-citizen footwear. "They just 
give him extra cushioning and support. And he doesn't have to endure the 
hammering involved in putting on regular shoes. They're very light and have a 
sneaker-like effect." 

      Hansen was in the barn that is part of the veterinary facility he and his 
wife, Ann, own and operate just off State Highway 2 near the Evergreen 
Fairgrounds. As current owners of Little Current, they have satisfied Mark's 
years-long adulation of the near-winner of horse racing's Triple Crown in 1974. 

      Being the oldest living horse to have competed in a Triple Crown race 
makes Little Current something of a museum piece far removed from the glamorous 
haunts of his youth: Darby Dan Farm, Churchill Downs, Pimlico . . . and, of 
course, Belmont Park, where tomorrow all eyes will be on another horse, 
Charismatic, which has a chance to do what Little Current was denied, win all 
three legs of Thoroughbred racing's crowning series for 3-year-olds. 

      Little Current raced through his 3-year-old year for Darby Dan Farm and 
later stood as a sire at the famed Lexington, Ky., facility until 1989. He then 
was sold to Doug Arnold of Arnold Farms in Lexington. Arnold sold him to Sonny 
Oechsner, a breeder in Louisiana, in 1993. 

      The Hansens purchased Little Current in the winter of 1995-96 and brought 
him to Monroe. 

      "I always liked horses that come from off the pace," Mark Hansen said. "My 
first big memory of him was in the Preakness." 

      The 1974 Preakness propelled Little Current from the relative obscurity 
that went with a fifth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby to prominence as a 3-
year-old champion. 

      Little Current showed signs of things to come in the Derby, which featured 
the biggest field, 23 horses, in the history of the 1 1/4-mile race. After one 
mile, Little Current was 17th, about 28 lengths off the pace. At the finish, he 
was 6 1/2 lengths behind winner Cannonade. 

      "It was a crime that this horse wasn't a Triple Crown winner," Arnold said 
by telephone from Lexington. "He clearly was the best horse that day in the 
Derby. He had been stopped two or three times in traffic." 

      Two weeks later, in the Preakness, "Little Current stormed through on the 
rail and ran away from the field," The Associated Press reported. 

      The margin over runner-up Neopolitan Way was seven lengths. Cannonade was 
another length back in third. The time of 1:54 3/5 for the 1 3/16 miles was two-
fifths of a second shy of the mark posted by the great Secretariat, the previous 
year's Preakness winner. 

      Next was the Belmont, and again Little Current prevailed, charging to a 
seven-length victory over Jolly Johu. Cannonade was third. 

      The Belmont was the last of Little Current's four victories (in 16 
starts). Burdened by high weight assignments, he finished second in the Monmouth 
Invitational Handicap and the Travers Stakes later in 1974. His last race was 
the Lawrence Realization, a 1 1/2-mile event on Belmont's turf course. He came 
out of it with an ankle injury and was retired to stud. 

      "He was not a brilliant sire," John Phillips, an executive with Darby Dan 
Farm, said. "He was a good broodmare sire." 

      Hansen maintained an interest in Little Current, primarily through Arnold. 
When Arnold sold the horse to Oechsner in Louisiana, "I was in vet school and 
wasn't in a position to own a stallion," Hansen said. 

      "After I got out of school, I talked to (Oechsner). I think one of the 
main reasons he was willing to sell him was he could feel we really loved that 
horse. . . . He said he thought we deserved to own him at some point. "It was a 
private treaty, based on foals and a lot of things," Hansen said of his purchase 
agreement. 

      Breeding, however, is not why the Hansens purchased Little Current. 

      "We really bought him to use for our own mares and because we love that 
horse," Hansen said. "We didn't buy him to be a stallion." 

      Jim Tracy, a trainer at Emerald Downs, is the only person outside of the 
Hansens who has a Little Current offspring foaled in Monroe. 

      Besides being historically significant as a racer, Little Current's 
longevity is something of a curiosity. 

      "These days there are a lot of horses living into their late 20s and early 
30s," Ann Hansen said. 

      She credits improved products used in worming horses, special foods and 
those comfortable shoes for increasing a horse's life span. 

      "He's on a special worming program," Ann said. "And he's on a special 
diet. All these feed companies have come out with diets that are easier to 
digest for the old guys. 

      "I think the shoes have been a big factor in keeping him comfortable. 
Those little aches and pains in life are a big deal." 

      Little Current appears comfortable in his quiet environment, a marked 
contrast to what it must have been like for him on those exciting days 25 years 
ago - at Churchill Downs, Pimlico and Belmont Park. 



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              Charismatic will be running with a crowd in Belmont 
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