THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Fifty years ago, Secretariat went on a run for the ages

The spotlight will shine on a very talented thoroughbred named Forte.

This gifted horse, trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, is certainly going to be the favorite in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.

Deservedly so.

Forte has won six of seven lifetime starts, and arrived in Louisville on a five-race winning streak.

He will approach the starting gate, most likely, at odds of 3-to-1 or better.

Millions of people, including 155,000 privileged to view the 149th running of the world’s most famous race in person (dressed in gaudy outfits and pink-cheeked from swilling mint julips), will wager an outrageous total of money in the belief that Forte is destined to defeat his 19 challengers.

Perhaps bettors trusting Forte will be rewarded, assuming he proves to be as good as his resume.

By that point, commentators and analysts from NBC will have used every cliché imaginable while describing this year’s Run for the Roses.

There’s one phrase that’s absolutely certain to grace the broadcast.

The Derby will be called: “The most exciting two minutes in sports.”

And that’s fair.

It’s a dramatic race that will have people screaming as the horses hit the stretch.

THE VICTOR, whether it’s Forte or a long shot, is going to post a time just a couple of ticks past two minutes.

“The most exciting two minutes, yada, yada … ”

Something special to know about this year’s Derby, however, is that it’s the 50th anniversary of a race that turned the oft-repeated phrase on its head.

In 1973, there actually were co-favorites as post time approached.

There was a solid runner called Angle Light, believed to be well-bred to handle the Derby’s mile-and-a-quarter test.

Another legitimate challenger was the tough, proven Sham.

And there was a mystery horse, a giant red beast who had been Horse of the Year as a two-year-old, but scared bettors after running a poor third in his last Derby tune-up race, the Wood Memorial.

A famous gambling tout turned TV personality, Jimmy the Greek, announced to a national audience that he suspected this horse was lame.

As it turned out, he was in fine fettle — the horse, not Jimmy.

This was Secretariat, and as the field approached the starting gate, the beautiful big colt was preparing to run into history.

In a span of five weeks that started on that Saturday in May, Secretariat became America’s horse — hitting the covers of Time, Life and Sports Illustrated magazines.

It’s hard to believe, sometimes, that Secretariat’s blaze into immortality happened 50 years ago.

It feels like we just saw it, like, a month ago.

Big Red’s first act was to chuckle at the “most exciting two minutes” notion — shrugging off Sham in the stretch to win the Kentucky Derby in the stunning time of 1:59 2/5.

BY THE finish of the Derby, we knew he was more than just a champion.

It was obvious that Secretariat had come to Earth with wings.

At the Preakness in Baltimore two weeks after the Derby, he made a move that horse folk insist shouldn’t be possible.

Having dawdled out of the gate, he was last in the first turn, then suddenly dashed past the entire field to take the lead.

That kind of madness would doom an ordinary horse to fading late on, but Secretariat simply ran away, ignoring a late effort by Sham to win in a Preakness record of 1:53 for the mile-and-three-eighths.

That all led to the truly wonderous afternoon, the race that actually seemed miraculous.

Just three weeks after his dramatic move in Baltimore, Secretariat ran what is considered the greatest thoroughbred race in history, destroying the field by 31 lengths in the brutal, mile-and-a-half Belmont Stakes in New York.

His final time was 2:24, a record by nearly three seconds.

Hard-boiled horsemen struggled to believe the timer.

I mean, horses broke records by tiny fifths of a second — not by unfathomable margins.

Secretariat also laughed at another old cliché, that records are made to be broken.

Not his records.

HALF A century later, Big Red still holds the record times for each leg of the Triple Crown.

America fell in love with this horse, and the passion never waned.

Movies were made about him, books, documentaries. There are statues of Secretariat all over the country, streets and parks named after him.

Despite his success as a two-year-old, the true legend began on May 5, 1973 — the 99th running of the Kentucky Derby.

When the horses line up on Saturday at Churchill Downs, the gifted Forte will be shooting for his greatest victory.

What he nor any other horse will do, however, is run the fastest Kentucky Derby.

A horse from heaven once put down the marker that mortal animals — if they could do such a thing — would think beyond comprehension.

That is legacy of Secretariat.

Still inspiring awe.

In a way, he is present at every Kentucky Derby.

And certainly this one, 50 years later.

Email: [email protected]

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”