No horse has made a more lasting impression on the Triple Crown than one big chestnut colt called Secretariat. With each passing year since he won the Triple Crown, people invariably compare the current racing field to him.
After 25 years without a Triple Crown winner, this horse made it look easy. His heart stopping win of the 1973 Belmont Stakes, the final and longest race in the triad, is unmatched.
If you watched the YouTube video, you can feel the wonder and beauty of watching one of creation’s miracles in action. He briefly raced for the lead with another good colt, Sham, but then the big red colt took the lead and it was his race.
The crowd all stood to cheer and watch this phenomenal horse race into immortality. He kept pulling away from the field as if they were standing still. He opened up a distance of 31 lengths and set a new track record for the 1 1/2 mile Belmont Park finishing in 2:24, taking 2.60 seconds off the track record.
Later it was found he had set a new record for all 1 1/2 mile races.
His jockey, Canadian Ron Turcotte, just steered not asking for anything. Secretariat just gave. Turcotte let his horse run, never touching him, sitting quiet and still in the saddle. It was time for history to see what this horse really was all about.
Down the stretch, Secretariat was no longer racing other horses; he was running to run—quiet, smooth, and unmatched. Effortless, his legs were blurred, his white stockings looking like mist or clouds marking the movement of his churning legs. He ran as no other horse has run in racing history—before or since. The field behind him looked as if they were not even in the same race.
At first excited veteran announcer, Chick Anderson, estimated it was 25 lengths between Secretariat and the field. It was later corrected to 31 lengths and “going away.”
Lengths are measured by support standards placed along the rail, one length apart. The distance is the approximate length of a horse’s body.
Secretariat had been an unusual horse from the time he was a foal. He was independent, brave, and curious. It was said in the book, “The Horse God Built,” he had a princely air about him even as a foal.
Secretariat was euthanized for laminitis on Oct. 4, 1989, at age 19 1/2.
An autopsy was done on Secretariat. What they found sparked research into a phenomenon that has been named, the “X factor”. The average thoroughbred has a heart weighing approximately nine pounds. Secretariat’s was a normal heart with no mutations, yet it weighed 22 pounds.
The bigger hearts are caused by a gene that is passed on by the dam, not the sire. The gene is carried in certain racing lines: Princequillo, War Admiral, Blue Larkspur, and Mahmoud.
This was an additional insight into the horse dubbed by Time magazine as “Superhorse.” However, when Sham, the closest rival during the 1973 Triple Crown Triad, was autopsied he was found to have a heart weighing 18 pounds. Secretariat’s is the largest heart on record and Sham’s is the second largest.
With the second jewel of the Triple Crown, the Preakness at Pimlico racetrack rapidly approaching, there has been no indication of another “Superhorse” in the field, but Super Saver might be a Triple Crown winner.
In the works at Disney is the movie “Secretariat” to be released Oct. 8, 2010.
After 25 years without a Triple Crown winner, this horse made it look easy. His heart stopping win of the 1973 Belmont Stakes, the final and longest race in the triad, is unmatched.
If you watched the YouTube video, you can feel the wonder and beauty of watching one of creation’s miracles in action. He briefly raced for the lead with another good colt, Sham, but then the big red colt took the lead and it was his race.
The crowd all stood to cheer and watch this phenomenal horse race into immortality. He kept pulling away from the field as if they were standing still. He opened up a distance of 31 lengths and set a new track record for the 1 1/2 mile Belmont Park finishing in 2:24, taking 2.60 seconds off the track record.
Later it was found he had set a new record for all 1 1/2 mile races.
His jockey, Canadian Ron Turcotte, just steered not asking for anything. Secretariat just gave. Turcotte let his horse run, never touching him, sitting quiet and still in the saddle. It was time for history to see what this horse really was all about.
Down the stretch, Secretariat was no longer racing other horses; he was running to run—quiet, smooth, and unmatched. Effortless, his legs were blurred, his white stockings looking like mist or clouds marking the movement of his churning legs. He ran as no other horse has run in racing history—before or since. The field behind him looked as if they were not even in the same race.
At first excited veteran announcer, Chick Anderson, estimated it was 25 lengths between Secretariat and the field. It was later corrected to 31 lengths and “going away.”
Lengths are measured by support standards placed along the rail, one length apart. The distance is the approximate length of a horse’s body.
Secretariat had been an unusual horse from the time he was a foal. He was independent, brave, and curious. It was said in the book, “The Horse God Built,” he had a princely air about him even as a foal.
Secretariat was euthanized for laminitis on Oct. 4, 1989, at age 19 1/2.
An autopsy was done on Secretariat. What they found sparked research into a phenomenon that has been named, the “X factor”. The average thoroughbred has a heart weighing approximately nine pounds. Secretariat’s was a normal heart with no mutations, yet it weighed 22 pounds.
The bigger hearts are caused by a gene that is passed on by the dam, not the sire. The gene is carried in certain racing lines: Princequillo, War Admiral, Blue Larkspur, and Mahmoud.
This was an additional insight into the horse dubbed by Time magazine as “Superhorse.” However, when Sham, the closest rival during the 1973 Triple Crown Triad, was autopsied he was found to have a heart weighing 18 pounds. Secretariat’s is the largest heart on record and Sham’s is the second largest.
With the second jewel of the Triple Crown, the Preakness at Pimlico racetrack rapidly approaching, there has been no indication of another “Superhorse” in the field, but Super Saver might be a Triple Crown winner.
In the works at Disney is the movie “Secretariat” to be released Oct. 8, 2010.
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