SECRETARIAT

 OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2008

Jockey Ron Turcotte was in for the ride of his life the afternoon of June 9, 1973, at Belmont Park aboard Meadow Stable’s Secretariat, and the world of racing would be blessed with an historic moment that would match the magnificence
of Don Larson’s perfect World Series game, Roger Bannister’s sub-four-minute mile, Gene Sarazen’s double eagle in the Masters, and Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game. Coming as it did shortly after Secretariat was featured on the covers of Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated helped stamp it into the nation’s consciousness.

The morning before the Belmont, retired Hall Of Fame trainer Hollie Hughes was at the track, as he motioned
Turcotte over so he could say a few words to him. As a young man, Hughes had sent out George Smith to win the 1916 Kentucky Derby and the list of horses he had seen around that time included the big three from the first part of the century:
Sysonby, Colin and Man o’ War.
“He was a man of few words, but he had something to say to me that morning,” Turcotte recalled. “He said, ‘Son, there is no way you can get this horse beat today – just don’t fall off. Believe me boy, you are riding the greatest horse of all time and I have seen them all.’ ”
Race day came and the 67,605 fans in attendance and the millions more watching on television witnessed the greatest exhibition of speed and stamina ever seen on the American Turf. Announcer Chic Anderson provided millions of listeners a lasting impression of Secretariat’s record performance midway through the one and a half-mile race. “Secretariat is blazing along! The first three-quarters of a mile in 1:09 4/5. Secretariat is widening now. He is moving like a tremendous machine!”
Secretariat, and Anderson, didn’t let up over the next three-quarters of a mile after disposing of rival Sham. The homebred son of Bold Ruler was in front by seven lengths after a mile in 1:34 1/5, by twenty at the quarter pole in the time of 1:59, by twenty-eight with a furlong to go, and finally by thirty-one under the wire in a world-record time of 2:24. The time shattered both the time and stakes record of 2:26 3/5 set by Gallant Man in 1957 and the American dirt record 2:26 1/5 set by Going Abroad at Aqueduct in 1964.
Few had doubted Secretariat’s greatness before the Belmont, and the universal praise after the performance was best expressed by veteran Turf coloumnist Charles Hatton. “His only point of reference is himself,” said Hatton, who also had seen Man o’ War run.
Kent Hollingsworth of The Blood-Horse wrote, “Two twenty-four flat. I don’t believe it. But I saw it. I can’t breathe. He won by sixteenth of a mile. I saw it. I have to believe it.”
The victory eclipsed to some extent the appreciation of Secretariat’s track-record time of 1:59 2/5 in the one and a quarter-mile Kentucky Derby and the colt’s unofficial record-time of 1:53 2/5 registered by two veteran Daily Racing Form clockers in the one and three-sixteenths-mile Preakness Stakes. The Derby time bettered Northern Dancer’s record time by three-fifths of a second if only it had counted. The 1:54 2/5 recorded by Pimlico’s official timer is listed as the official time.
The Triple Crown pursuit and triumph took a hold on the nation to such an extent that it bestowed a certain amount of stardom on Meadow Stable’s Helen (Penny) Chenery.Chenery, who was married at the time to John Tweedy, wore that stardom like a champ.
On behalf of family members, Chenery had taken over the management of the Meadow Stable operation after her father, farm patriarch Christopher T. Chenery, became ill. She retained the role as manager following her father’s death in January of 1973 and spearheaded the deal in which Secretariat was syndicated for breeding purposes for a record $190,000 per share in the first part of his three-year-old season. Secretariat’s total value was placed at $6.08 million and the colt was billed as being worth his weight in gold.
Secretariat was a product of a foal-sharing arrangement between Meadow Stud and breeder-owner Ogden Phipps, whose mother, Mrs. Henry Carnegie Phipps, bred and raced the great Bold Ruler. Meadow stud and Phipps would toss a coin to determine which party got which foal from the mating of Meadow Stud mares to Bold Ruler. Secretariat’s fate was decided at the Saratoga meeting in 1969 when Meadow Stud won the coin toss for yet another unborn foal of Somethingroyal, whose earlier offspring included champion Sir Gaylord. Secretariat, who was foaled at the Meadow near Doswell, Virginia, on March 30, 1970, was bred in the name of Meadow Stud.
The Belmont Stakes might have been Secretariat’s defining moment, but it wasn’t the last of his great races. After the Belmont, Secretariat was taken to Chicago, where Mayor Richard Daley honoured him by declaring June 30 “Secretariat Day.” Secretariat easily won the Arlington Invitational at one and one-eighth miles, just missing Damascus’ track-mark of 1:46 4/5 by a fifth of a second. Turcotte later said, “If only I had let him run for two jumps, that would have been another record.” The following year, Arlington honoured Secretariat by running the Secretariat Handicap, which later gained grade I status. For comparison, it wasn’t until 1959 (in New York) when Man o’ War was honoured with a race.

Extract from “Thoroughbred Champions: Top 100 Racehorses of the 20th Century”
Published by Eclipse Press
A Division of Blood-Horse Publications
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