Thirty-One Lengths Bourbon is a whiskey cocktail of history and art

Fifty-three years ago, 9-year-old me stared at my family's 19-inch, wood-clad, black-and-white TV with my mouth agape. Secretariat had just shifted into a speed gear all his own and was gobbling up the mile-and-a-half distance of the Belmont Stakes as if his stud career would begin at the finish line.

I remember distinctly how the camera operator kept widening the view in hopes of including Secretariat and the next horse, the now-shamed Sham, within the same frame. At the halfway point, Secretariat was so far ahead that the cameraman switched to a wide-angle lens if only to prove that the other four horses hadn't just given up. (Click here to watch it.)

When the big chestnut colt with a nearly 25-foot stride (a common thoroughbred's stride is about 20 feet) crossed the line, the next horse was a surreal 31 lengths behind. With jockey Ron Turcotte aboard, "Big Red" had won the first Triple Crown in 25 years and set record times in all three races. Those marks have never been bested.

Six-year-old Brook Smith was watching the same race, and like millions of others, the sight was seared into his permanent memory. While in college, the notion of owning horses someday took root when a steed co-owned by a father's friend won a stakes race on Kentucky Derby weekend. He dug the horse track scene, its traditions, getting close to the animals on the backside, and the game's adrenaline-pumping excitement.

Fast forward about a decade to when Smith, already a successful businessman, bought his first horses. Racing as a hobby soon evolved into a habit of business as bigger opportunities to join syndicates arose. In such circles, animals not only raced for grander prizes, but they also matriculated to prestigious breeding operations.

"They were like, do you think you might want to participate in owning a percentage of some super high-end yearlings?" Smith recalled. "These horses are extremely pedigreed, the ones that kind of scream that they could be something (on track) and with the hopes that we can make a sire out of one of them."

As owner of Rocket Ship Racing, Smith's horse lineup includes the stallion, Sierra Leone, which won $7 million in his career. (By way of a transition to an article about bourbon, Smith also was an early investor in Castle & Key Distillery.) A serial start-up investor, Smith was drawn to collaborative opportunities.

"Even if I don't create something, I'm really a sucker for empowering people to create stuff," says Smith. And with this new 31 Lengths Bourbon venture, "Now you start to mash together two of my favorite things: bourbon and horses."

31 Lengths Bourbon is an ultra-premium whiskey in a beaut of a bottle shaped to mimic the oval of the Belmont Park race track. The bottle is crowned with a porcelain carnation, the flower chosen for the garland thrown across the shoulders of the Belmont Stakes winner. The blue-and-white-checked neck band mirrors the silks worn by Claiborne Farm horses and their jocks. The whiskey inside is a sourced 15-year-old bourbon proofed to 100. Like Secretariat, it bears a rich chestnut hue.

Smith said he hopes people drink the 700 ml of bourbon within because whiskey is meant to be shared and experienced.

"I would encourage people to enjoy it," he said. "You can drink it neat, which is the way I prefer good bourbon. But, yeah, most people probably won't open it. It is a showpiece with the box. It's a keepsake." (Click here to learn more about its design.)

And it's available in truly limited numbers. The first release of 31 Lengths will be 500 bottles. Another 700 bottles will be released later.

Smith's drive to produce 31 Lengths is also fueled by the stories of the horse and the owner behind it. Secretariat was a freak of nature. After his death, equine physicians eager to see the inner assembly of the beast performed a necropsy. Key among their findings was a heart nearly triple the size of other horses', a blood-pumping engine that provided exceptional stamina and strength.

His owner and breeder, Penny Chenery, "was a force of nature. No question about it," Smith said. "(A)nd people don't remember the struggle. (Claiborne) farm was close to shutting down a couple different times. It had such a legacy and she wasn't going to just give that up."

At the end of the Belmont victory video, you see Chenery celebrating wildly. By many accounts, she was bold, salty and sometime sassy: a woman not to be toyed with, but one worthy admiration and affection.

When I ask about the $1,500 price for the bottle (click here to buy and find the "add to cart" tab at the top right), Smith acknowledges it's high. Then he points to its cost: "We've got a lot of money in this bottle. The ceramic carnation topper is not some run-of-the-mill thing. A lot of work went into that. It's handmade."

A percentage of 31 Lengths' sales go to the Backside Learning Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit which provides education, social services and family support for equine industry employees at Churchill Downs. "That's the community that runs the industry," he said. "Backside does great work."

When the businessman within him remerges, he asks, "Will we turn a profit? I guess if we sell them all, we will. But we've got some ground to cover" to accomplish that.

"At the end of the day ... 31 Lengths is more about having a conversation piece and being associated with and reveling in something historic," Smith said. Whiskey and history such as horse racing are about "capturing the moment and having fun."

My take on the bourbon

This piece was supposed to be a whiskey review, but Smith's story behind it was much more interesting, so I wrote that. But I do want to add my comments on 31 Lengths Bourbon.

Though not stated publicly, this bourbon is born of a mash bill containing 75% corn, 13% rye and 12% malted barley. That it's also aged for 15 years might lead you to assume it's that wildly popular byproduct of a corporate mash-up connected to a wild bovine and an elusive game bird. That's all I'll say about that.

Initially, the nose is bright, citrusy and busy with spring flowers before leaning into aromas of sultanas and plumped golden raisins. Eventually, those give way to denser notes of graham cracker and freshly baked bread before moving toward cooked cereal grains and a little corn pudding.

On the palate, it supplies much of what you'd expect from a 15-year-old bourbon: modest doses of leather and fire-cured tobacco alongside oxidized candied and tropical fruit notes. That the bourbon is a bit lean is a bit surprising given its age, but the decision to reduce the proof to 100 surely factors into it. Its modest dryness isn't surprising for a whiskey this old, but softer notes of dried peaches and fresh raspberries are sweet surprises.

This is a good bourbon that's delicious and approachable for any whiskey drinker, but is it worth $1,500? As Smith said, it's not just about the whiskey; there's much more to the whole 31 Lengths package and story and ethos. I get that.