Secretariat: The Triple Crown Horse Who Ran Like Nothing Before or Since
On June 9, 1973, a chestnut Thoroughbred named Secretariat entered the starting gate at Belmont Park for the third leg of the Triple Crown. He was already famous. He had won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness by large margins, setting track records at both. But what happened next was different. In 2 minutes and 24 seconds, Secretariat ran the mile and a half of the Belmont Stakes so far ahead of the second-place horse that the gap was 31 lengths. The record has never been broken.
No horse before or since has matched what Secretariat did that day, or at the Kentucky Derby, or at the Preakness, where he set a track record that also still stands. He is the only horse to have won all three races in the same year and set records in each one.
Who He Was
Secretariat was born on March 30, 1970, at Meadow Stables in Doswell, Virginia. He was a large horse for a Thoroughbred, standing 16.2 hands and weighing approximately 1,175 pounds during his peak racing years. His coat was a bright copper chestnut with three white stockings and a distinctive blaze. He was bred by Penny Chenery and trained by Lucien Laurin, who had also trained the 1972 Triple Crown near-miss Riva Ridge.
From the beginning, Secretariat's times were unusual. According to ESPN and Sports Illustrated race archives, he had a habit of running each quarter mile of a race faster than the one before, the opposite of normal racing strategy. In the 1973 Belmont Stakes, his quarter-mile splits were 0:23.2, 0:22.8, 0:23.0, 0:23.2, 0:23.0, and 0:23.0. He literally ran the last quarter faster than the first. No horse does that.
The Science Behind the Speed
After Secretariat died in 1989, a routine necropsy revealed his heart weighed 22 pounds. A normal Thoroughbred heart weighs 8 to 9 pounds. His heart was physically larger than nearly any horse on record, with an estimated pumping capacity nearly three times average. Cardiologists who reviewed the findings noted that a heart this size would explain the sustained aerobic output the race footage shows, a cardiovascular system operating at a level outside the range of typical horse anatomy.
According to Sports Illustrated, during his record Belmont Stakes run, his stride covered approximately 25 feet. His oxygen consumption, estimated from heart rate and cardiac output data, was significantly above any previously measured race horse. The University of Kentucky's genetics researchers later traced an X-chromosome gene associated with large heart size in Thoroughbreds. It is believed Secretariat carried this gene in a particularly pronounced form.
After Racing
Secretariat retired to stud at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky in late 1973. He was syndicated for $6.08 million, the largest syndication deal in Thoroughbred history at that time. He produced 341 foals over 16 breeding seasons and sired several Grade 1 stakes winners. He died on October 4, 1989, at age 19, from laminitis, a painful hoof condition common in older horses. He was buried whole at Claiborne Farm, an honor typically reserved for Triple Crown winners.
In 1999, ESPN ranked Secretariat 35th on its list of the top North American athletes of the 20th century. He was the only non-human on the list.
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Sources
- History.com — Secretariat's Triple Crown — race history, 1973 season, Belmont Stakes details
- Smithsonian Magazine — The Science Behind Secretariat's Speed — heart size, stride analysis, cardiac output research
- ESPN Classic — Secretariat Biography — career record, split times, ESPN top athletes ranking
- Blood-Horse — Secretariat — breeding record, stud career, lineage contributions to modern Thoroughbred bloodlines
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