When the ballots were distributed for this year's voting for the Racing Hall of 
Fame, it came as a personal defeat for a 32-year-old Baltimore man named Kevin 
Grace.  
Little Current, the 1974 Preakness winner, did not make the ballot -despite the 
best efforts of Grace, who campaigned for two years, lobbying racing writers 
throughout the US, and even in England and France, to write articles paying 
homage to the Darby Dan Farm homebred who came tantalizingly close to taking the 
Triple Crown.  
Of course, there is always next year.  .  .  But Grace is no longer brimming 
with hope, as he once was.  "I gave it everything 1 could muster," said Little 
Current's one-man promotional army, ''If it was going to happen, I figured this 
would be the year,"
Grace isn't bitter.  Just disappointed.  And deeply sorry for the horse, whom he 
believes was dealt an injustice.  
What if his year had not happened to be the 100th running of the Kentucky Derby, 
which brought every horse with (maybe) half a chance to the starting gate, and 
created a madhouse field of 23?
Little Current might have had better racing luck, that's what.  He might not 
have gotten bumped and blocked (five different times, by some counts).  And he 
just might have defeated Cannonade, the winner, who reached the wire six and a 
quarter lengths to the good of Little Current's fifth-place finish.  
It was Little Current's Preakness that told the tale, as Grace points out.  
Coming from off the pace, as was his style, Little Current again found himself 
blocked in from all directions, but somehow squeezed through on the rail and 
exploded like a rocket in midstretch to win going away, by seven lengths.  
Grace, who now works in the licensing office at the Maryland tracks, wasn't old 
enough to know much about racing when Little Current performed this electrifying 
feat.  But he's watched the tape many times and heard the stories.  
Add to the record Little Current's performance in the Belmont: He rallied to 
score again by a seven-length margin while, as Grace likes to observe, 
completing the final three furlongs in a faster time than Secretariat's 
legendary running one year earlier.  
If that's not greatness, Grace wonders, what is?
And Little Currents distinctions do not end there.  Upon the conclusion of his 
racing career (see complete race record on next page), the handsomely bred son 
of *Sea-Bird-Luiana, by *My Babu, had :\ successful career at stud.  
From 21 crops of foals, he is represented by 33 black-type winners and progeny 
earnings of just under S15 million.  Little Currents best offspring include 
Grade 1 winners Current Mope and Prize Spot, and 22-time stakes winner Curribot.  
Today, at 30, Little Current is the oldest living winner of a Triple Crown race, 
and is a much-beloved pensioner at Drs.  Mark and Ann Hansen's Pacific Equine 
Clinic in Monroe, Wash., near Seattle.  (He's featured on the clinic's website 
at www.  pacificequine.com. 
Grace visits Little Current three rimes a year, bringing peppermints, which he 
is careful to hand over "one at a time, although once he bit me when I wasn't 
quick enough."
Little Current's place in history became clear to Grace during a tour of 
Kentucky horse farms in 1999.  His mission, since then, has been helping others 
to see it, too.  
Maybe someday Little Current will make it into the Hall of Fame.  One thing's 
for sure.  If there were a hall of fame for racing fans, there'd be lots of 
votes for Kevin Grace.