It was the biggest cake you ever saw. That was the point. Alan Balch, who ran Santa Anita when I was the track announcer there in the late 70's and early 80's, decided to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. It would be the largest cake in the history ---well, the l o n g e s t cake in history. And at an eighth of a mile long, it was.

It was the birthday cake for Johnny Longden. Valentines Day, 1979. The Santa Anita catering department set up saw horses on the track from the eighth pole to the finish line. Boards were placed on them end over end. One by one huge chunks of cake were added and icing applied, until a narrow ribbon of white extended from the green and white pole to the spot where Johnny had won so many thoroughbred races. All of the fans who attended the races that day got a piece of that history making cake that honored a history making athlete.

And there at the winning end of that sweet display was a 4 foot 11 inch giant. And even though he had lost more races than any other jock at that time, he was indeed a true winner. He had beaten the odds and beaten the grim reaper.

He was lucky to be there, considering the dangerous life of a jockey who had ridden until he was 59 years of age. He was lucky to be there at all, knowing that only a slow train from Wakefield, England had prevented Johnny and his mother from boarding the initial voyage of a ship called The Titanic.

Johnny got to North America, and while still a child he worked as a "grease pig." That was the name given to the small folks who led the mules hauling coal out of the mines in northwestern Canada. Who would dream that the strength he built in his little shoulders and arms would come in so handy where his birthday cake then stood, waiting for him to cut the first piece.

From mules to horses. From leading them to riding them. Longden, then in his teens, became adept at "Roman Riding." That was where the jockey would place one foot on two different horses, standing on their backs! And they raced. Johnny won fifteen of these Roman races in a row.

It was an easy transition to riding horse races sitting down, and this little guy was an instant success. From Salt Lake City to Agua Caliente, to California, to the Triple Crown.

Along the way he continued to set records, tell stories, and become a major thread in the fabric of this sport.

He loved recounting the tale of Rushaway. On May 22, 1936 Johnny teamed up with this 3 year-old to win The Illinois Derby at Aurora Downs near Chicago.

The very next day, May 23, 1936 the same horse and rider won The Latonia Derby in northern Kentucky. And Longden said he and owner-trainer Al Tarn had several celebratory cocktails during the several hundred mile trip from one Derby to the next. Johnny would later marry Tarn's daughter.

But all this was a prelude to Count Fleet. The racehorse who won the 1943 Triple Crown was so good, nobody really knew how fast he was. Longden told me that he only let him roll "full out" once, and that was in a morning workout. The Count took the bit, and ran so fast Johnny put the brakes on, because he said he was afraid of the consequences.

On the racetrack, Longden guided Count Fleet to Horse of The Year honors as a 3 year-old in only two months, through six races. An allowance affair in April, The Wood Memorial, The Kentucky Derby, The Preakness, The Withers (between the final two legs of the Triple Crown,) and a 25 length victory in The Belmont Stakes. He was 1-20 in his last two races, but in truth, there were only two other horses in each of those fields.

He became a United States citizen the next year, and started piling up the victories. He was the world's winningest jockey with 6,032 wins, when he retired from the saddle. But records are made to be broken. Bill Shoemaker surpassed Longden's total. And Laffit Pincay, Jr. is now the leader, and adds to his total every racing day.

Johnny was a jockey for 40 years, and a trainer for 23. He was inducted into racing's Hall of Fame in 1958. But Longden made history in another way. He is the only person in history to ride a Kentucky Derby winner, and also train one.

Majestic Prince was the horse. He won the Kentucky Derby and The Preakness in 1969, Bill Hartack was the rider. The Belmont Stakes that year was a bitter-sweet affair for Longden. He did not want to bring Majestic Prince to New York for the third leg of the Triple Crown. At the old Gotham Hotel on Fifth Avecnue, which is now The Pennisula Hotel, the NYRA had the Press Center for The Belmont. And the night before the quest for racing's most elusive prize, Johnny said that Frank McMahon forced him to bring the colt east. Longden told all the writers in the suite that night that Majestic Prince was knocked out from the rigors of the first two legs, and would not win The Belmont.

He was right. Arts and Letters, uncharacteristically, went to the front and never looked back. Elliott Burch, trainer of Arts and Letters, later told me that he knew Majestic Prince was not 100% and that if Braulio Baeza could get to the front, they could deny Longden this Triple Crown. Majestic Prince finshed second, beaten almost six lengths.

Johnny Longden passed away Friday, it was his 96th birthday. And if you ever drive through Arcadia, California, you might note a major throughfare named Longden Blvd. It honors the kind of competitor and character that we don't see very often.

And the record for the longest cake? That fell too. 28 chefs in Dubai built a cake in 1996 that was 8,303 feet long. But Longden Blvd. is longer, has more character, and brings more memories

A memory of Longden sitting in the walking ring at Santa Anita, talking about the longevity of athletes, directly relating to their legs. There he sat with those tiny legs dangling from the bench. Telling his adoring audience that he never worried about his own legs. He said, "why when used to go out on the racetrack, I'd have four new legs under me for every race!"