Forty years ago today, one of the greatest athletes in history began his quest to become legend. Two minutes later he had achieved just that, with a jaw-dropping performance that resonates even today. It previewed two dramatic follow-up victories that may have him ultimately remembered as the greatest of all time, until the end of all time.
From one perspective he was the outcome of perfectly planned breeding. From another, the nearly perfect product of evolution who was enhanced, rather than hindered, by a glaring genetic quirk. Either way, he was a freak of nature.
He was descended from royalty, in name and bloodline. His champion father had a name worthy a Roman emperor or Viking chieftain: Bold Ruler. His mother was equally regally named: Somethingroyal. Despite that lineage, his early career had ups and downs. Initially dismissed as a “fat kid” who would never win, he finally got in shape and had an epic first year in competition. Yet he arrived at his moment of destiny reeling from a lackluster performance. Would he rise to the occasion today, or fade, as he did just two weeks earlier? In the stands, and around the globe, he had such a following that millions planned their day around being able to watch the outcome on TV, or at least hear it on radio.
Who was this gifted athlete walking toward the starting line, carrying the weight of the world’s expectations?
His name was Secretariat, and when he blazed through the 1¼-mile Kentucky Derby in a time of 1:59:40, he not only rose beyond all the expectations of the occasion, he smashed Northern Dancer’s record by more than a half-second. In horse racing that is the type of quantum-leap record that may take a century to break—if it is ever broken.
Not that the victory was an easy one. This video shows that Secretariat was running next to last at the halfway mark of the race, and he didn’t join the leaders until the final turn:
His half-cousin, Sham, made a brilliant stretch run and would have won the Derby on almost any other day, but it was his misfortune to be born in the same year as the race horse that is arguably the greatest in history. Sham finished 2½ lengths back. Even though his finish wasn’t officially timed, it is very likely the second-fastest Derby ever run.
With the Derby victory behind him, expectations were even higher for Secretariat two weeks later at the Preakness Stakes, the second jewel in the “Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing” events. Again off to a slow start, Secretariat was last at the first turn. When he accelerated at the clubhouse turn, it was like a fighter jet swooping past a fleet of biplanes. If you watch this video, Secretariat is almost a blur as he sweeps past the others:
Only Sham was able to give serious chase, and again he came up 2 ½ lengths short.
The victory was a record according to many seasoned timers at the race, and according to side-by-side television playbacks of Secretariat’s run versus the other alleged record holders. In a controversy that raged for years, the official clock of the race gave Secretariat a time much slower than many could believe. While we know many of his fans seethed at the insult, based on his next performance we also have to wonder if Secretariat seethed as well.
The Belmont Stakes is the third, the longest, and the most grueling of the Triple Crown races. The 1½-mile distance has been the undoing of many horses vying to win all three events. There have been 11 Triple Crown winners, while 22 horses have won the Derby and the Preakness, but lost at the Belmont. When Secretariat arrived at the Belmont, no horse had won the Triple Crown since the legendary Citation, 25 years earlier.
Secretariat again carried the weight of the world’s expectations to the starting gate. If he won he would be the greatest thoroughbred in a quarter century, and would be in the argument for the greatest ever.
Instead of lagging behind as in the last two races, Secretariat launched from the gate as if he had a point to make. At the first turn he and Sham were already side by side and in the lead. On the backstretch the announcer proclaimed, “It is almost a match race now,” as Secretariat and Sham had moved 10 lengths ahead of My Gallant, the third-place horse.
Secretariat was as famous for his presence and personality as for his running, so fans will always wonder if he was smarting from not being given a record at the Preakness, wanted to stamp himself as an immortal, or simply had a perfect day—but what happened next is the stuff of legend.
At the ¾-mile mark, and already ahead of record pace, Secretariat began to pull away from Sham. The announcer proclaimed “he is moving like a tremendous machine” and the camera pulled back trying to keep Sham in the frame as Secretariat opened a 12-length lead.
Approaching the final turn, Sham faded suddenly and his jockey eased up to protect the obviously exhausted horse. Sham ultimately fell back to last place, and never raced again. Fans held their collective breath wondering if Secretariat too was spent. Would he be just another horse who almost won the Triple Crown, but instead faded in the longer distance of the Belmont?
Coming off the turn Secretariat put that concern to rest as he accelerated and pulled away to an astounding 31-length victory. When he crossed the wire, his margin of victory was so great the other horses weren’t even in the camera frame. His time of 2:24 is still a world-record for the 1½-mile distance, and is a full two seconds ahead of the second-fastest Belmont time. Perhaps the most amazing aspect of his runaway victory is his jockey, Ron Turcotte, never even nudged him to go fast. Secretariat set his own pace, a fact that contributed even more to his legend. Caught up in the drama of the moment, even the announcer’s voice cracks as he calls the finish:
How big were Secretariat’s accomplishments? Time, Newsweek, and Sports Illustrated featured him on their magazine covers all in the same week. His agency booked appearances for him in a manner usually reserved for movie stars. The general public simply went wild over him: Millions of people who never before cared about horse racing knew who “Big Red” was. Years later, ESPN listed him 35th on its list of the 100 Greatest Athletes of the 20th century, and ranked his Belmont win as the second-greatest sports performance—second only to Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points in an NBA basketball game.
Secretariat raced only a few more times after the Belmont, finishing on a fittingly winning note with a 6½-length victory over much older horses in the Canadian International Stakes. He was retired to stud after that race.
Among Secretariat’s 600 progeny there have been few remarkable stallions, but he became a noted broodmare sire. A possible explanation emerged after his untimely death on October 4, 1989, when he had to be euthanized due to an incurable hoof condition called laminitis. His previously unknown genetic quirk was revealed by a heart that was estimated to weigh 22 pounds, nearly 2¾ times as large as that of the average horse. An extremely large heart is a rare condition passed down by a trait linked to female horses, thus a competitive advantage Secretariat could pass along only through his daughters.
A study of Secretariat’s ancestry traced his bloodline all the way back to another horse with an oversize heart—Eclipse, a British thoroughbred who lived from 1764 to 1789, and was the greatest race horse of his time. Nothing was known of Secretariat’s oversize heart while he was alive, but in retrospect it is fitting that he twice won the Eclipse Award for American Horse of the Year, which is named for his long-distant ancestor.
Gone but hopefully never forgotten, Secretariat added to his legend when he rose from the grave 39 years later to set yet another record. In June 2012, on the strength of modern technology that could prove the official time was wrong, the Maryland Racing Commission ruled that Secretariat actually ran the Preakness in a record time of 1:53 back in 1973. That gives him a clean sweep of Triple Crown record times to go along with the Triple Crown itself: a feat that may never be challenged.
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Copyright © 2013 by motomynd
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