Secretariat
The year 1973 saw sport figures at their finest. Richard Petty won the Daytona 500. The Oakland Athletics won the World Series. The New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers at the NBA finals. George Foreman knocked out Joe Frazier. O.J. Simpson became the first NFL player to rush for 2,000 yards in a single season. The Stanley Cup went to the Montreal Canadians. However, it was a five-week span in the spring of 1973, from May 5 to June 9, where not only the sports world, but all of America was riveted by a single sports figure that loomed above the rest. He was a figure so large, that he was on the cover of Time, Newsweek, and Sports Illustrated all in the same week, and he set more records in his wake than any other athlete. When he retired, 6,000 fans came out to say a personal goodbye in retirement, he remained as popular as ever, and long after he died, he remained the standard against which others are measured. His name was Secretariat, the winner of horseracings Triple Crown, but most Americans came to know him as “Big Red” racing fanatics called him the “Super Horse,” but the media went even further by calling him “America’s Super Horse.”
The history of horseracing goes back long before Secretariat and the Triple Crown. In fact, it dates back to the Olympics in 642 B.C.[1] Horseracing in America can trace its roots to England. It was under the Tudors that the first Royal stud became established, and the later Stuart monarchic Charles II developed the “sport of kings” in the town of Newmarket in Suffolk.[2] Horseracing during this time resembles was grueling. Horses ran 4-mile races, which were decided after three or four heats, usually separated by half-an-hour between each running.
During the reign of the Tudors and the Stuarts, horses imported into England for the first time solely for the reason of racing. The first horses came from Italy and Spain. Not long after, breeds like the Barb, Turks, and Arabians started arriving from North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean. The mixing of these three breeds with the native English horse gave birth to the early thoroughbred. All of the world’s thoroughbreds are descended from three famous stallions – the Byerley Turk, the Darley Arabian, and the Godolphin Arabian, who came to
Horseracing in the
While
There was one more race that vied for top honors as the most important race in America. It was called the Kentucky Derby. The race came about through the efforts of Colonel M. Lewis Clark. After returning from a trip to Europe, Clark devised a plan to improve the reputation of the horses in Kentucky. He wanted to introduce the methods of the English Jockey Club and the style of their great English races, like the Epsom Classics to America. He planned to create modern tracks and a series of rich stakes races like the Clark Handicap, the Kentucky Oaks, and finally the Kentucky Derby.[6] On May 17, 1865, in front of 10,000 people, the first Kentucky Derby was run at 1½ miles with a horse named Aristides winning.
By the early 20th century, everything was set for the America’s Triple Crown of horseracing. A few changes needed to be made in the order of the races and their distances, before the races we know today s the Triple Crown – the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes – to emerge. The Kentucky Derby’s length was changed from 1½ mile to 1¼ miles in 1896. The Preakness underwent many changes before its length was finally set at 13/16 miles in 1925. The Belmont Stakes was set at 1½ miles one year later. Even after the races and their distances were set, the name “Triple Crown” was not coined until a popular sports writer for the New York Times named Bryan Field first used it in 1930. He came up with it on the day after Gallant Fox won the
Even before the Triple Crown was officially named one horse managed to capture all three races in 1919. His name was Sir Barton.[8] Eleven years would pass till a colt by the French stallion *Sir Gallahad III out of the Celt mare, Marguerite, named Gallant Fox would follow in his footsteps. [9] His son, Omaha, would win the Triple Crown in 1935.[10] They are the only father-son due to have done so. The great Man o’ War’s son, War Admiral, took the Crown in 1937.[11] A feat even his sire did not do. A quick session of Triple Crown winners followed through in the 1940s. Whirlaway in 1941.[12] Count Fleet in 1943.[13] Assault in 1946. [14]
Horseracing in America was on an upswing, with every horse better than the last. That feeling held true for Citation in 1948, who went where the ones before him failed. As quoted in the Blood-Horse:
“There were few stars in the 1940s to rival Citation and jockey Eddie Arcaro on the nation’s sport pages. Baseball had Joe DiMaggio and Jackie Robinson. Boxing had Joe Louis, and football had Slingin’ Sammy Baugh. The college football ranks were led by
Citation tops the list for all great racehorses, sometimes even being called the greatest. When Citation retired at the age of six, he had started forty-five times, won thirty-two times and amassed $1,085,760 smashing the record set by Whirlaway only two years earlier.[16] Big Cy, as he was affectionately called, would be the Triple Crown they would talk about for years thinking there would never be another like him.
The story of Secretariat, the greatest Triple Crown winner, began with the toss of a coin in 1968 between Chris Chenery of Meadow Stables and Ogden Phipps of Wheatley Stables. The idea of a coin toss came from Phipps, the owner of Bold Ruler, and Bull Hancock of Claiborne Farms, as a way to get the very best mares for Bold Ruler, and when the toss went their way, to add well-bred fillies to their own broodmare band.[17] Bold Ruler was considered one of the important stallions of his time. He could carry weight and go distances like no other horse could. After his racing career was over, Bold Ruler was retired to Claiborne Farms, but he was still controlled by the Phipps family. This meant that he would be bred to mainly Phipps’ mares and not many of his offspring would find their way to the auction ring. Phipps and Hancock agreed to forgo a stud fee for Bold Ruler in exchange for getting to keep “one of two foals produced by the mare he bred in successive seasons or two mares he bred in the same season.”[18] Who got which foal or even first pick would be decided by a flip of a coin.
In 1968, Chenery sent two mares named Hasty Matelda and Somethingroyal to Bold Ruler, and in 1969, a colt and filly were the result. In 1969, Hasty Matelda was replaced by Cicada but she did not conceive. Only one foal resulted between Bold Ruler and Somethingroyal. As stated in the original agreement, the winner of the coin toss could pick the foal he wanted, but could only take one, while the loser would get the other two. Both parties assumed Somethingroyal would deliver a healthy foal in the spring of 1970.[19] The coin toss between Penny Chenery and Ogden Phipps was set for the fall of 1969 in the office of New York Racing Association Chairman Alfred Vanderbilt with Bull Hancock as witness. As Vanderbilt flipped the coin, Phipps called “Tails!” The coin landed tails up. Phipps decided to take the weanling filly out of Somethingroyal, leaving Chenery with the colt out of Hasty Matelda and the unborn foal of Somethingroyal. On March 30, just ten minutes past midnight, Somethingroyal foaled a bright red chestnut colt with three white socks and a star with a narrow blaze.
Almost immediately, the colt was thought to be too pretty, a title that would haunt him early in his racing career and then earn him fame for his beauty as a Triple Crown winner. By the time the colt was a yearling, he was still without a name. Meadow’s secretary, Elizabeth Ham, had submitted ten names to the Jockey Club and all ten were denied for one reason or another. Approval finally came with the eleventh submission, a name Ham herself picked from a previous career association, the name was Secretariat.[20]
The red colt’s training got underway, and by April 1972, Secretariat left Meadow Stables to begin his career as a racehorse. Through May and June, he grew in strength and ability, gained in fitness, and appeared to begin learning in earnest how to run.[21] Secretariat’s first race would be on July 4 at Aqueduct in New York City for maidens (nonwinners) going five-furlongs.[22] It was a bad trip for him where he placed in bad running room and repeatedly bumped into eventually trapping him with no place to go and no running room. It was something that should have never happened and it gave the young colt a glimpse of what was expected of him, it was also the only time he would ever finish out of the money. Eleven days later, he had his second start and won. He would win for the next four starts before a disqualification from first to second smeared his winning streak. It came in the Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park were Secretariat was involved in some bumping on the backstretch. The racing stewards viewed the tape, spoke to the other jockeys and promptly disqualified Secretariat from first to second. Secretariat would have two more starts that year with first place finishes that would garner him enough attention to capture the Champion Two-Year-Old and Horse of the Year honors, the last being unheard since a two-year-old had outclassed older horses. This attention led people to start asking about possible breeding rights to him following his career. This showed the amount of clout and excitement people were already feeling before his big three-year old campaign and it also showed that people were willing to pay any amount. Seth Hancock, the young new head at Claiborne Farms, literally started calling up investors in North America and
The people in Secretariat’s life were soon be as popular as he himself was. His owner, Penny Chenery, became owner after her father died of a stroke early in 1973.[24] Mrs. Chenery quickly became an ambassador for the sport. Canadian-born Lucien Laurin came out of retirement to be Secretariat’s trainer. Jockey Ron Turcotte, was also from
As 1973 rang in, Secretariat continued to experience success on the track. He won his first two starts easily, the
Leading up the Kentucky Derby, rumors spread rapid that Secretariat was lame or could not go a mile and a quarter.[26] Few reporters told the story of the abscess that probably hurt Secretariat in the Wood Memorial. Instead most would rather believe the strapping young colt was not nearly as good as some had proclaimed. Such things as, “Secretariat was sore,” “had knee problems, hip problems, hock problems, arthritis, rheumatism, a recurrence of splints,” and “he could not go around two turns.”[27] Like with anything rumors are for the bored and Secretariat was about to give the whole word something to talk about.
Derby day had perfect weather with clear blue skies and high of seventy degrees with 134,476 in the stands watching the race.[28] When the starting gates open, the horses make a break and run in front of the grandstands for the first time known as “Derby Lane” before going into the clubhouse turn. Only twelve horses challenged Secretariat on this day and when the gates opened he was the 3-2 favorite. Secretariat broke dead last and stayed there for the first quarter of a mile. Jockey Ron Turcotte was happy with this, it meant that Secretariat was away from any immediate danger of being boxed in or bumped into. Secretariat was improving his position going from last to eleventh with the first quarter being run in :232/5. Going through the first turn, Secretariat began to pick up speed moving on the outside. The half mile was done in :472/5, Secretariat was closing in on them with each stride he took and was now running sixth. At the half-mile pole the time was 1:114/5. Secretariat was now seven lengths off the leaders. As they turned for the stretch it was only Sham and Secretariat, the crowd on the feet watching the duel play out before them. Less than one-hundred yards they moved as one, Sham digging in to defend his lead, Secretariat pushing the envelop. A furlong to go Secretariat starts to pull away and wins the ninety-ninth Kentucky Derby by an easy 2 ½ lengths. Within seconds the crowd realizes they just witnessed history with the derby being run in the fastest time ever, breaking the two minute marker, at 1:592/5! More realization comes with the knowledge that Secretariat ran each quarter of the race faster then the previous, the splits: :251/5, :24, :234/5, :232/5, and :23.[29] Secretariat had vindicated himself and put all those Secretariat doubters where they belonged.
The track at Pimlico is built much like the track at Churchill Downs, a one-mile track where a city grew-up around it. Many horsemen believe that the track has tighter turns, which calls for aggressive and alert riding with good speed. The track itself favors speed and is perfect for a horse that comes from off the pace. When Preakness day dawned, it was another perfect day with clear blue skies and another seventy degrees. The crowd packing the grandstand at Pimlico was smaller than at the derby, only 61,657.[30] Secretariat was still the bettors choice, going off as the 3-10 favorite in a field of seven. As in the derby, Secretariat broke last again, just like the Kentucky Derby. The first quarter was run in :25 with Secretariat running fourth only five lengths off the leaders and moving. Jockey Ron Turcotte took him to the outside to give him racing room. In a blink of an eye Secretariat takes off going from fourth to first in a 180-yards on a turn, defying the law of physics. On the backstretch Secretariat is holding his lead by a length and a half. The second quarter in :234/5, after a half-mile the time was :454/5 with Secretariat holding his lead at two and a half lengths. The half mile comes in a 1:12, Secretariat is alone running smoothly as if he is having fun. Coming down the stretch, Turcotte eases off of him, settling him against the rail, never once has he touched him with his whip. Secretariat won by 2½ in a final time of 1:55 flat, a whole second off the track record.
The excitement was far from over, word was spreading that the time was wrong and that in fact Secretariat ran the race in 1:532/5 shattering the old track record by 23/5. It was two reporters from the Daily Racing Form that hand clocked the race from two different points and got this same time. In every race a track official, typically the paddock judge also hand clocks the race who got 1:542/5. The discrepancy between the Daily Racing Form, the track official, and the teletimer led to a special hearing by the Maryland Racing Commission where CBS televised Secretariat’s race to track record holder’s Canonero II’s race from 1971. Done frame-by-frame, it revealed that Secretariat was faster, by more than two seconds. Even with all the evidence, the Maryland Racing Commission made the paddock judge’s time of 1:542/5 the official one. In the Daily Racing Form, they maintain that the time of 1:532/5 is the correct one. This same time is accepted by most fans as well.
The week leading up to the Belmont Stakes, Secretariat appeared on the cover of Time, Newsweek, and Sports Illustrated, a feat never done by any horse in the long history of American journalism. Secretariat was the talk of the town, and everyone was wondering if he could do it or if the Triple Crown would elude him. To help with the Secretariat publicity, the William Morris Agency stepped up to represent him. Interviews were granted, photo ops given, and odd requests of selling little Secretariat trinkets to the public.
Five days before the Belmont Stakes, Secretariat was sent to the Belmont track to work an easy mile in a time of 1:36. Instead Secretariat ran it in 1:343/5, when he came back to the barn he was playing, kicking out, bucking. To the observe, Secretariat had gone too fast, and a work like that would leave nothing for the race. When race day finally rolled around, it was a hot one, sunny with high humidity at ninety degrees and a crowd of 67,605 showed up to witness history. Only four horses went to the gate, not to challenge Secretariat, but for second and third place earnings. Secretariat was considered a show in by the opinion of the bettors who sent him off at even odds. Secretariat broke near the lead going up with them the leaders and staying on the rail. Sham went with him, challenging him early for the lead. The pace was fast, with the first quarter-mile in :232/5, Sham still did not back off and kept pushing Secretariat. The pace accelerated with the half-mile in :461/5, the fastest in Belmont history. Sham and Secretariat are still together with a seven length lead over the other three horses. The third quarter was done in 1:094/5, the pace is unrelenting, no horse should go this fast. Secretariat is going to fast, he will be spend. The Triple Crown will be lost. On the backstretch Secretariat starts to pull away, Sham was spent. With every stride Secretariat took, he widened the gap from the rest of the horses. At the mile it was 1:341/5, incredible and amazing. The crowd is on its feet cheering for Secretariat, the track announcer is yelling into the mike as he calls the race,
“Secretariat is widening now, he is moving like a tremendous machine! Secretariat by twelve. Secretariat by fourteen lengths on the turn. Secretariat is all alone, he’s out there almost a sixteenth of a mile in front of the other horses. He is into the stretch, he leads the field by eighteen lengths. Secretariat has opened to a twenty-two length lead. He is going to be the next Triple Crown winner! Here comes Secretariat to the wire! An unbelievable, an amazing performance! He hits the finish, twenty-five lengths!”[31]
After a such a distance had been reached, it becomes difficult to accurately count the lengths between horses. In the end Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes by thirty-one lengths, ran the race in 2:24 breaking the world record for a mile and half by 23/5. As Secretariat crosses the wire, the crowd is on their feet applauding and again while Secretariat comes back to the winner circle. The crowd becomes so loud it is impossible to hear.
Secretariat was the ninth Triple Crown winner in history and the first in twenty-five years. The most admired fact about any thoroughbred athlete is that they run because they want too. Unlike their human counterpart, racehorses do not do it for the endorsements, for the money, or for the fame. They simply run because they love too. In retrospect it was said that, “Secretariat came along just when we all needed him the most, 1973 was a difficult year, the time Nixon, of Watergate, and of the Vietnam war; the country needed a hero, and here was this red horse in blue and white silks, a red, white and blue hero for America.”[32] Secretariat was considered more popular and more liked than President Nixon. Some even thought if he were to run for President, he would win. During a time in America, where uncertainty and scandal were considered the norm Secretariat gave piece of mind. Secretariat was scandal proof celebrity for people to look at and enjoy him, without politics. He gave his fans hope and a window to escape through every time they watched him run. Secretariat was a true hero.
Life after the Triple Crown carried on for Secretariat. It did not matter to Secretariat he was still doing his job of winning races, and even losing. On July 5, Secretariat lost in The Whitney after running a low-grade fever. It was immediately wondered if he had spent himself out after his win in the Belmont and if he was through. After a rest, Secretariat’s time in work outs improved, and on September 15 he won the Marlboro Cup setting a new world record of 1:452/5 for the mile and furlong. October 8, he was entered into the Man o’ War Stakes, again setting a new course record of 2:242/5 for the mile and half race. Two-fifths of a second off his Belmont record.
Secretariat retired in a formal farewell held at
The story of Secretariat does not end there, with all great thoroughbreds their legacy lives on in today’s thoroughbreds. At the start of Secretariat’s stud career, it was wondered if he could produce any offspring and could possibly even be sterile. Much anticipation had greeted Secretariat when he retired, and he faced the impossible when expected to reproduce a carbon copy of himself. If he were sterile, a devastation like no other would cramp down on the thoroughbred industry. An early test revealed the stallion had “immature sperm in differing amounts.”[34] Claiborne Farm staff decided to test breed the stallion and for unknown reasons they chose an appaloosa nurse mare named Leola. Secretariat was fertile and the breeding took. Several appaloosa enthusiasts contacted Claiborne Farms to buy the mare and her unborn foal. It was John and Lynn Nankivil of
First Secretary grew to a full 17 hands, an inch taller than his sire had with a rich red coat, three white socks, and a blaze. Secretariat had produced something for the appaloosa world with Leola’s breeding going back directly to the American Indian heritage of the Nez Perce. First Secretary’s November birthday made him ineligible to race, so instead his owners used him strictly as a stud, never even taking the chance to break him for riding. First Secretary sired two hundred and forty-seven foals including thirty-nine racehorses and twenty-five that went on to show in appaloosa breed shows earning 1,373 points. First Secretary lived to an old age and died in 1993 after suffering from colic.
If First Secretary was cause for embarrassment, then Sain Et Sauf was the source of panic. Sain Et Sauf was the 1977 breeding result of Secretariat and 1970 Canadian Horse of the Year, Fanfreluche, who on June 6, 1977 was discovered missing from her stall at Claiborne Farms. How she got away from her captors is unknown, but a family in rural
Secretariat sired the first horse ever to sell for a million dollars, produced over forty stakes winners, including 1986’s Horse of the Year, his daughter Lady Secret.
Also added to Secretariat’s crop was 1988 Preakness and
Secretariat was out of the public eye, but he remained a celebrity and remained the most talked about and photographed thoroughbred in the world. The day before Secretariat’s death, Claiborne Farms owner, Seth Hancock said this about Secretariat, “Ten thousand people come to this farm every year, and all they want to see is Secretariat. They don't give a hoot about the other studs. You want to know who Secretariat is in human terms? Just imagine the greatest athlete in the world. The greatest. Now make him six foot three, the perfect height. Make him real intelligent and kind. And on top of that, make him the best-lookin' guy ever to come down the pike. He was all those things as a horse. He isn't even a horse anymore. He's a legend.”[37]
On Labor Day 1989, Secretariat came down with laminitis, a life-threatening hoof disease, and for a month would suffer. Laminitis, a fearful disease that all horses can succumb too, is synonymous with “founder,” being used to describe inflammation of the sensitive laminae that cover the P3 or pedal bone inside the hoof. The condition can be acute or chronic and is usually confined to the front feet. It had been believed the attack was under control, when on the morning of October 3, Secretariat began experiencing extreme pain. In an effort to ease the great horses suffering, his life was humanely ended at 11:45 a.m. on October 4 by a lethal injection. He died in less than a minute. At dusk that evening Secretariat was buried in the horse cemetery at Claiborne Farms in an oak coffin. By the end of the week, his grave was beginning to look like the final resting place of a celebrated war hero on Memorial Day, surrounded by red roses, chrysanthemums, and carnations. Secretariat was given one more honor after his death he was buried whole. It is a tradition unique to the thoroughbred bred that after a horse’s death they are buried with their head – to symbolize intelligence, their heart – to symbolize courage, and their legs – to symbolize power, only the greatest horses are given the honor of a full body burial.
After Secretariat was pronounced dead, and before he was buried, his body was taken to the
Even if his heart was never weighed, the biggest comparison to Secretariat would be the first American equine hero, the other “Big Red” as in Man o’ War. Bred in 1916 by August Belmont II, the son of August Belmont, Sr., Belmont answered the call of duty late in life by being a Major in the Quartermaster Corps in Spain during World War I.[41] The yearlings born in 1917 were placed up for sale at the Saratoga Yearling Sale of 1918. There Man o’ War sold for $5,000 to Sam Riddle of Pennsylvania. At the end of Man o’ War’s racing career, he had started twenty-one times, won twenty of them, set three world records, two American records, and three track records. As a stud Man o’ War was no better than Secretariat. Riddle has long been accused of mishandling Man o’ War’s stud career by not seeing to it that he was bred to high quality mares. His greatest contribution to the racing world would have been the 1937 Triple Crown winner War Admiral and his grandson, Seabiscuit. Man o’ War died on November 1, 1947, barely a month after the death of his faithful groom, Will Harbut. It was said that Man o’ War had died from grief. Man o’ War was the first horse to be embalmed lying in state for three days before being buried at Riddle's Faraway Farm. He was buried in a full size oak coffin lined with silk in the colors of Riddle’s stable, yellow and black, with more than two thousand people attending his funeral which even was broadcast nationally on radio. Years before his death, Riddle commissioned artist Herbert Hazeltine to sculpt a memorial statue of Man o’ War to be placed on his grave. In 1977, Man o' War and his famous statue were moved to the
[1] Edward, Elwyn Hartley, ed. Encyclopedia of the Horse. (
1977), 117 – 119.
[2] Ibid., 118.
[3] Bedford, Julian. The World Atlas of Horseracing. (
[4] Ibid., 130.
[5] Ibid., 130.
[6] Ibid., 124.
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