Secretariat winning the Belmont in 72 by 31 lengths

[fishorsechess]

I can't understand why events, people become more famous
year later, when they die for example. When I was looking
at old newspapers on Secretariat winning the Belmont it
didnt seem like a big deal back then. It was only years later
we immortalized it. Sort of like how Picasso art work became
more famous when he died.

[cj]

Bull...I was just a little kid, and even then, I remember Secretariat. He was on the cover of Time I believe. And not years later.

[Tee]

He was on the cover of Time I believe. And not years later.

June 11th - 1973

Along with Time Magazine he was on the cover of Newsweek & Sports Illustrated the week prior to the Belmont Stakes.

[Pace Cap'n]

So where were you in '72?

[Valuist]

I don't think we'll ever see Ghostzapper, St. Liam or Hard Rock Ten on the cover of Time. I was 9 years old at the time and knew nothing about racing but even I watched the race.

[JimG]

When I was looking
at old newspapers on Secretariat winning the Belmont it
didnt seem like a big deal back then.

Your either too young to remember or you were not into horse racing in 1973. It was a HUGE deal! and still is.

Jim

[Suff]

Your either too young to remember or you were not into horse racing in 1973. It was a HUGE deal! and still is.

Jim

I started going to the track with father at that point in time. On the weekends, reading the racing form. I was working for him part-time and bet my own money.

In 1975, My brother and I went to the Kentucky derby with him. I was 14 my brother 13. Two freckled face irish kids running around Churchill Downs. My Father was God.:ThmbUp:

[joeyspicks]

I knew nothing about horse racing then but I was a huge Detroit Tiger fan and always read the Joe Falls column in the Detroit Free Press. He always wrote about the Tigers in his Sunday column. He wrote a piece on Secretariet winning the Belmont and how after the race ended the press corp room was COMPLETELY SILENT (very unusual:D )..........for about 30 seconds.....and then erupted. He said they KNEW they had just witnessed a historic event that none present would ever forget.

I STILL remember reading it and wishing I had seen the race:jump: :jump: :jump: :jump:

wow:ThmbUp:

[kenwoodallpromos]

After Secretariat and Picasso died people could stop trying to figure it out and just enjoy.

[46zilzal]

ONE OF A KIND. ONLY major sports star to be simultaneously on the covers of Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated the same week (which was actually a trvia question on "Who wants to be a Millionaire"). Charles Hatton senior editor of the DRF said he had NEVER seen another like him...Mack Miller described him as the best he had EVER seen on the track and this is a VERY conservative fellow.

He was immortalized BEFORE his final season. When I went to Claiborne to have two private audiences with him they told me he regularly got over 10,000 visitors a year and NOW the number of roses delivered to his grave is so large they have to carry them off in trucks.

NOTHING diminishes his greatness: Triple crown with each a track record (Derby alone with EACH FRACTION FASTER THAN THE PREVIOUS ONE). FIRST TIME on the grass breaks the track record in the Man O' War beating the THEN leading candidate for grass horse of the year.

[46zilzal]

1972 RIVA RIDGE: same stable different three year old...had just missed the Triple when Bee Bee Bee got an off track in Baltimore.

[46zilzal]

There is an interesting way to recall the races he did lose. Just remember "M" and "W". He lost his MAIDEN first start (a red horse in white and blue silks starting on July 4th...sounds like a movie script), then flip the "M" over to remember him getting beat in the Wood, Whitney, and Woodward. This doesn't count his DQ as a two year old.

[Overlay]

First Triple Crown winner in twenty-five years, and demolished the existing track record by over four seconds (in a stakes that had been run by the best three-year-olds in training for over a hundred years). I remember the Daily Racing Form chart caller characterizing Secretariat's effort as "a tremendous performance". I don't think I've seen such a degree of (well-deserved) hyperbole and editorializing in a chart comment before or since. (I'm glad I have the video that was put out on his career so I can watch it whenever I want.)

[46zilzal]

An MIT biomechanics fellow described strides he had studied (in particular in the PBS show "A Magical Way of Going") he compared the amount of energy lost while a leg strikes the ground and contended that the MORE efficient strides spent less time transferring weight and then compared Riva Ridge to Red in the Marlboro Cup and the differnces were amazing. He stated that he never had measured any stride like Secretariat's quote... "When you put all the biomechanical data regarding Secretariat into a computer SMOKE comes out the back!"

[fishorsechess]

I was too young and not into racing

[ryesteve]

I was too young and not into racing
Then I guess you'll have to take the word of those of us who were old enough at the time... it was a HUGE deal.

[46zilzal]

Have a friend ( a breeder) who likes to call that wonder a "freak" and I remind him that given what he did, yes he was sort of freakish, but since the ENTIRE racing establishment, jaded or not, thought the same thing of his excellence and had already given him a special place of honor, and that my opinion was only part of a larger choir extolling his stellar achievements.

In person, he had that "look of Eagles" as well in the place of honor in a special stall where his sire lived out his days. His groom gave me one his shoes and allowed me to come back the next day when he, and Bid were in adjoining paddocks (Bid was full of it running here and there and his older rival was a bit more reserved). I was honored to have given the chance for a personal audience and we got him to beg for peppermints while I videotaped him. Sadly, the last time I saw him in 1989, he was notably limping in his foreleg.

One of the photos I took of him, he was cribbing on the fence and after he died I sent that to Mrs. Tweedy as a rememberance. About a month later she sent me a handwritten note and HER favorite photo of Red. Has a place of honor here.

[skate]

it does make you think


picasso could never touch "big red"


my book

[Buckeye]

Nobody else is in the the same sentence.

Secretariat was called a Super Horse.

and he was.

Even more than that, Secretariat was a hero who lived up to expectations. He was finer than anyone.

[46zilzal]

Birthdate: March 30, 1970 - Birthplace: The Meadow in Doswell, VA
Date of Death: October 4, 1989 - Place of Death: Claiborne Farm Paris, Kentucky

Vital Statistics:
Height: 16'2 Hands
Weight: 1200 Pounds
Number of foals: 653 - 57 Stakes Winners
Current Popular Descendents: A.P. Indy, Gone West, Storm Cat, Elusive Quality, Smarty Jones

Owner: Meadow Stable, Penny Tweedy (Chenery)
Trainer: Lucien Lauren
Jockey: Ron Turcotte
Groom: Eddie Sweat
Exercise riders: Jim Gaffney and Charlie Davis

Lifetime Races: Raced two years; Record 21-16-3-1; $1,316,808

At 2(1972)
WINS: Sanford Stakes, Hopeful Stakes, Belmont Futurity, Laurel Futurity, Garden State Stakes.
PLACE - Champagne Stakes (disqualified from 1st)
Champion 2 year-old colt ~ Horse of the Year

At 3(1973)
WINS: Kentucky Derby (new track record), Preakness Stakes (new track record), Belmont Stakes (new WORLD record), Bay Shore Stakes, Gotham Stakes (tied track record), Arlington Invitational, Marlboro Cup (new WORLD record), Man O'War Stakes (new course record), Canadian International
PLACE: Woodward Stakes, Whitney Stakes
SHOW: Wood Memorial
Champion 3 year-old colt ~ Champion Grass Horse ~ Horse of the Year

[foregoforever]

My father and I watched on TV, and he was wiping his eyes afterward. I had chills running up and down my back for the last half of the race. My local paper had a photo on the cover of the sports section that took up half the page. Believe me, it was HUGE back then.

If there has been some historical hyperbole, it's in the "we needed a hero like Secretariat because of Watergate" etc. The Watergate hearings were going on about that time, but I think most folks were more amused by the theatrical aspects of them at the time. The truly depressing aspects of it didn't come until later in the year and into early 1974.

[kenwoodallpromos]

Secretariat and Lost in the Fog both ran it in 7 furlongs!
LITF ran in 1:21:33; Secretariat in 1:23:20!LOL!!
(BUT-Secretariat had a troubled trip!LOL!)
So you judge horses of different eras on their own merits because fate will not allow otherwise!LOL! :D :lol:

[plainolebill]

I was 31, I watched it on a monitor at Longacres.

[fishorsechess]

My father and I watched on TV, and he was wiping his eyes afterward. I had chills running up and down my back for the last half of the race. My local paper had a photo on the cover of the sports section that took up half the page. Believe me, it was HUGE back then.

If there has been some historical hyperbole, it's in the "we needed a hero like Secretariat because of Watergate" etc. The Watergate hearings were going on about that time, but I think most folks were more amused by the theatrical aspects of them at the time. The truly depressing aspects of it didn't come until later in the year and into early 1974.


Ok Fischer was a hero in 1972 in chess, but an anti-Semit nut case
in 2004.

[betchatoo]

Secretariat came to Arlington just 3 weeks after the Belmont and you couldn't have kept me away from the track. He was amazing. I remember it was a Mile and 1/8th and he ran the final furlong in 12 flat! The most beautiful and amazing horse I have ever seen and I've been blessed to see a lot of great ones

[KingChas]

I was too young and not into racing

Are you into it now? :confused:

That Belmont replay still sends chill up my spine-to this day! ;)

[OTM Al]

Just finished reading the Nack book about him. Well written, though really wraps with the TC and very little said of his last few races, but the writer sure made those TC races exciting. Funny thing though...going into the Derby, which also had Sham and Forego, the pundits were talking about how it was such a weak 3yo crop. Some things never change.

[Skanoochies]

Ahhh, Secretariat. "Beads of nostalgia flow down my cheek." He`ll always be my favorite. Ghostzapper? Big Red would have toyed with him for several furlongs then said good night. :jump: