Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989) was an
American Thoroughbred racehorse, who in 1973 became the first
U.S. Triple Crown champion in twenty-five years, setting new race records in two of the three events in the Series – the
Kentucky Derby (1:59 2/5), and the
Belmont Stakes (2:24) – records that still stand today.
Secretariat was the son of
Bold Ruler (a grandson of
Nearco) out of
Somethingroyal. He was born at
Meadow Farm in
Caroline County,
Virginia. Like the equally famous horse
Man o' War, Secretariat was a large
chestnut colt and was given the same nickname, "Big Red."
Owned by
Penny Chenery (aka Penny Tweedy), he was trained by
Canadian Lucien Laurin and mainly ridden by fellow Canadian jockey
Ron Turcotte, along with apprentice jockey Paul Feliciano (first two races), and veteran
Eddie Maple (last race). He raced in Penny Chenery's Meadow Stable's blue and white checkered colors and his
groom was
Eddie Sweat. Secretariat stood approximately 16
hands 2 inches tall, and weighed 1,175 pounds in his racing prime.
Background
The story of Secretariat began with the toss of a coin in 1968 between
Christopher Chenery of Meadow Stables and
Ogden Phipps of
Wheatley Stable. 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. Bold Ruler was considered one of the important
stallions of his time. He had a fine balance between speed and stamina, having had a frontrunning style but the stamina to go 1 1/4 miles; he finished 3rd in the 1957 Kentucky Derby. After his racing career, Bold Ruler was retired to Claiborne Farms but still was controlled by the Phipps family. This meant 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. Who obtained which foal or even received 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. The coin toss between Penny Chenery and Ogden Phipps was held in the fall of 1969 in the office of New York Racing Association Chairman
Alfred Vanderbilt II, with Hancock as witness. Phipps won the toss and took the
weanling filly out of Somethingroyal, leaving Chenery with the colt out of Hasty Matelda and the unborn foal of Somethingroyal.
On March 30, at 12:10 a.m., Somethingroyal foaled a bright red chestnut colt with three white socks and a star with a narrow
blaze. By the time the colt was a
yearling, he was still unnamed. Meadow Stables' secretary, Elizabeth Ham, had submitted 10 names to the Jockey Club, all of which were denied for various reasons. Approval finally came with the 11th submission, a name Ham herself picked from a previous career association, Secretariat.
As a 2 year old
On July 4, 1972, Secretariat finished fourth, beaten 1 1/4 lengths, in his first race at
Aqueduct Racetrack when he was impeded at the start, forced to take up on the backstretch and then could not make up the ground. After that loss, Secretariat then won 5 races in a row, including three important two-year-old stakes races, the
Sanford Stakes and
Hopeful Stakes at
Saratoga Race Course, and the
Futurity Stakes at
Belmont Park. In the Hopeful, he made a huge move, passing 8 horses in 1/4 mile to take the lead and then drawing off to win by 5 lengths. He then ran in the
Champagne Stakes at Belmont, where he finished first but was disqualified and placed second for bearing in and interfering with Stop the Music, who was declared the winner.
Secretariat avenged that loss in the
Laurel Futurity, winning by 8 lengths over Stop the Music, and completed his season with a win in the
Garden State Futurity. Secretariat won the
Eclipse Award for
American Champion Two-Year-Old Male Horse, and, in a rare occurrence, two two-year-olds topped the balloting for 1972
American Horse of the Year honors with Secretariat edging out the
filly,
La Prevoyante. Secretariat received the votes of the
Thoroughbred Racing Associations of North America and the
Daily Racing Form, while La Prevoyante was chosen by the
National Turf Writers Association. Only one horse since then,
Favorite Trick in 1997, has won that award as a two-year-old.
Preparing for the Kentucky Derby
Secretariat started off his three-year-old year with an easy win in the Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct. In his next start, the
Gotham Stakes, Secretariat led wire-to-wire for the first time in his career. He ran the first 3/4 of mile in 1:08 3/5 and finished the one mile race in 1:33 2/5, equalling the track record. However, in his next start, he finished third in the
Wood Memorial to his stablemate Angle Light and
Santa Anita Derby winner
Sham, in their final prep race for the Kentucky Derby.
The Triple Crown
The Kentucky Derby
Despite the loss in the Wood Memorial,
Churchill Downs bettors made Secretariat the 3–2 favorite over Sham in the 1973
Kentucky Derby. Secretariat broke last but gradually moved up on the field in the backstretch, then overtook his rival
Sham at the top of the stretch, pulling away to win the Derby by 2 1/2 lengths. Our Native finished in third place.
On his way to a still-standing track record (1:59 2/5), he ran each quarter-mile segment faster than the one before it. The successive quarter-mile times were: 25 1/5, 24, 23 4/5, 23 2/5, and 23. This means he was still accelerating as of the final quarter-mile of the race. It would be 28 years before any other horse would win the Derby in less than 2 minutes (
Monarchos in 2001).
The Preakness Stakes
In the
Preakness Stakes, Secretariat broke last but then made a huge, last-to-first move on the first turn. After reaching the lead with 5 1/2 furlongs to go, Secretariat was never challenged and won by 2½ lengths, again with Sham finishing second and Our Native third.
The time of the race was controversial. The infield teletimer displayed a time of 1:55. The track's electronic timer had malfunctioned because of damage caused by members of the crowd crossing the track to reach the infield. The
Pimlico Race Course clocker, E.T. McLean Jr., announced a hand time of 1:54 2/5. However, two
Daily Racing Form clockers claimed the time was 1:53 2/5 which would have broken the track record (1:54 by
Cañonero II). Tapes of Secretariat and Cañonero II were played side by side by CBS and Secretariat got to the finish line first on tape, though this is not a reliable method of timing a horse race. The Maryland Jockey Club, which managed the Pimlico racetrack and is responsible for maintaining Preakness records, discarded both the electronic and Daily Racing Form times and recognized 1:54 2/5 as the official time. However, the
Daily Racing Form, for the first time in history, printed its own clocking of 1:53 2/5 next to the official time in the chart of the race.
Subsequently, Tank's Prospect (1985), Louis Quatorze (1996), and Curlin (2007) have all run 1:53 2/5, equaling the time attributed to Secretariat by the Daily Racing Form.
Farma Way won the 1991
Pimlico Special in 1:52 2/5, setting the current track record.
As Secretariat prepared for the
Belmont Stakes, he appeared on the covers of three national magazines,
Time Magazine,
Newsweek, and
Sports Illustrated. He had become a national celebrity.
The Belmont Stakes
Only four horses joined Secretariat for the June 9, 1973, running of the
Belmont Stakes, including
Sham, who had finished second in both the Derby and Preakness, along with three other horses thought to have little chance by the bettors, Twice A Prince, My Gallant, and Private Smiles. With so few horses in the race, and with Secretariat expected to win, no "show" bets were taken. Secretariat was sent off as a 1–10 favorite to win as a $2.20 payout on a $2 ticket and would pay at 20 cents more – $2.40 – to place. Before a crowd of 67,605, Secretariat and
Sham set a fast early pace, opening ten lengths on the rest of the field. After the 6 furlong mark,
Sham began to tire, ultimately finishing last. Secretariat astonished spectators by continuing on the fast pace and opening up a larger and larger margin on the field. In the stretch, Secretariat opened a 1/16 mile lead on the rest of the field. At the finish, he won by 31 lengths (breaking the margin-of-victory record set by Triple Crown winner
Count Fleet, who won by 25 lengths) and ran the fastest 1½ miles on dirt in history, 2:24 flat, which broke the stakes record by more than 2 seconds. This works out to a speed of 37.5 mph for his entire performance. Secretariat's world record still stands, and in fact, no other horse has ever broken 2:25 for 1½ miles on dirt. If the
Beyer Speed Figure calculation had been developed during that time,
Andrew Beyer calculated that Secretariat would have earned a figure of 139, one of the highest figures he has ever assigned. Many bettors holding 5,617 winning parimutuel tickets on Secretariat never redeemed them, presumably keeping them as souvenirs (and they only paid $2.20 on a $2 bet).
Secretariat became the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years and the 9th in history.
After the Triple Crown
Secretariat never duplicated his Belmont Stakes performance and never won another G1 race on dirt again, but continued to run impressively after the Triple Crown. He shipped to Chicago and easily won the Arlington Invitational at
Arlington Park. He went to Saratoga, long known as the "graveyard of favorites", and succumbed to the jinx, losing the Whitney Stakes to the
Allen Jerkens-trained
Onion by a length. He then won the inaugural
Marlboro Cup against a field that included Secretariat's stablemate, the 1972 Derby and Belmont Stakes winner
Riva Ridge, top California stakes winner
Cougar II, Canadian champion
Kennedy Road, Onion, Travers winner
Annihilate 'Em, and 1972
American Champion Three-Year-Old Male Horse,
Key to the Mint. Secretariat ran 1:45 2/5 for 1⅛ miles, a world record at the time.
Secretariat suffered another loss to an Allen Jerkens trainee,
Prove Out, by 4 1/2 lengths in the 1 1/2 mile
Woodward Stakes in his next start. After failing on dirt in 2 of his last 3 races Secretariat then tried racing on
turf for the first time in the
Man O' War Stakes and won by five lengths over Tentam, setting a still standing track record time of 2:24 4/5.
Final race
Secretariat's owner entered into a syndication deal that precluded the horse racing past age three. Accordingly, Secretariat's last race would be against older horses in the
Canadian International Stakes at
Woodbine Racetrack in
Toronto,
Canada. It would mark the second time in his career that he raced on grass and the first time he would be asked to go one and five-eighths miles. Secretariat won with another impressive performance. With jockey Ron Turcotte out with a five-day suspension,
Eddie Maple rode Secretariat to victory by 6 1/2 lengths.
Altogether, Secretariat won 16 of his 21 career races, with three seconds and one third, for an in the money finish in 20 of 21 starts, and total earnings of $1,316,808.
Secretariat was again named Horse of the Year, as well as winning Eclipse Awards as the
American Champion Three-Year-Old Male Horse and the
American Champion Male Turf Horse.
Honors and retirement
Secretariat's statue at Belmont Park
Secretariat sired a number of major stakes winners, including 1986 Horse of the Year
Lady's Secret, 1988
Preakness and
Belmont Stakes winner
Risen Star, and 1990
Melbourne Cup winner
Kingston Rule, who broke the course record in
Australia's richest race.
He also sired General Assembly, who won the 1979
Travers Stakes at Saratoga while setting a still-standing race record of 2:00 flat. Andrew Beyer has said that General Assembly's speed figure in that race was one of the fastest in history. Like Secretariat in the Belmont, General Assembly never duplicated that performance in another race.
There has been some criticism of Secretariat as a stallion, due in part to his perceived inability to produce offspring of his same caliber. His expensive syndication deal, perhaps, raised unrealistic expectations. Ultimately, he sired as many as 600 foals during his retirement. Though his blood flows through other notable racehorses---including (especially) 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner
Smarty Jones, Secretariat turned out to be a noted broodmare sire, being the broodmare sire of 1992 Horse of the Year and successful sire
A.P. Indy, Secretariat's grandson through his daughter Weekend Surprise, who was sired by another Triple Crown winner,
Seattle Slew. AP Indy is the sire of 2007
Belmont Stakes winner
Rags to Riches, the first filly to win at Belmont since 1905. Secretariat is also the dam-sire of the great stallions
Storm Cat (by
Storm Bird), through his daughter Terlingua, herself an excellent racemare, and of Gone West, through his daughter Secrettame.
In the fall of 1989, Secretariat was afflicted with
laminitis, a painful and often incurable hoof condition. When his condition failed to improve, he was
euthanized on October 4 at the age of 19. Popular as a Triple Crown champion and in retirement alike, Secretariat was mourned by millions and buried at
Claiborne Farm in
Paris, Kentucky, given the rare honor of being buried whole; usually only the head, heart and hooves of a winning race horse are buried, the rest cremated. Post-mortem exam showed that his heart weighed 22 pounds, the largest ever recorded for a racehorse.
On October 16, 1999, in the winner's circle at
Keeneland Race Course in
Lexington, the
U.S. Postal Service honored the great horse, unveiling a 33-cent
postage stamp with his image.
ESPN listed Secretariat 35th of
the 100 greatest athletes of the 20th century, the highest of three non-humans on the list (the other two were also racehorses:
Man o' War at 84th and
Citation at 97th ). Secretariat was inducted into the
National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1974, the year following his Triple Crown.
In 2005, Secretariat appeared once more in
ESPN Classic's show
Who's No. 1?. In the list of "Greatest Sports Performances" (by individual athletes), the horse was the only non-human on the list, his run at Belmont ranking second behind
Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game.
On May 2, 2007 Secretariat was inducted in the
Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, marking the first time an animal received this honor.
Secretariat, the motion picture
A
Walt Disney Pictures film titled
Secretariat is currently in filming and is scheduled to be released in 2010. From a
screenplay by
Mike Rich, it is being directed by
Randall Wallace and will star
Diane Lane as Secretariat's owner,
Penny Chenery.
Race record at age 2
Race record at age 3
- *Preakness Stakes (Daily Racing Form clockers claimed he established a new track record, but a malfunctioning official timer did not, and the clockers' time has not been officially recognized)
in history on a dirt track)
Pedigree
