Secretariat

      Secretariat is an American Thoroughbred born March 30, 1970 died October 4, 1989. In 1973 became the first U.S. Triple Crown champion in 25 years. A horse can become a Triple Crown winner by winning three different series of races: the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes. Secretariat set race record time in all three events in the series- the Kentucky Derby his time was 1:59.4, the Preakness Stakes was 1:53, and the Belmont Stakes was 2:24. Even today no horse has beaten his records, he is considered to be one of the greatest race Thoroughbreds of all time.

     Secretariat’s sire is Bold Ruler and his dam is Somethingroyal, he was born at The Meadow in Caroline County, Virginia. Secretariat was a large chestnut colt, who got the nickname “Big Red”. He was owned by Penny Chenery, he was trained by Lucien Laurin, and he was mostly ridden by Ron Turcotte, he also raced with Paul Feliciano, and Eddie Maple. Secretariat raced in Chenery’s Meadow Stable’s blue and white checkered colors and his groom was Eddie Sweat, who Secretariat spent most of his time with. Secretariat was approximately 16.2 hands tall and weighed 1,175 pounds.

    The story of Secretariat began with a toss of a coin between Penny Chenery and Ogden Phipps. Phipps and “Bull” Hancock came up with the coin toss. The toss is where someone could pick the foal they wanted out of three foals: the unborn foal of Somethingroyal and Bold Ruler, a filly out of Somethingroyal, and a colt out of Hasty Matelda. Phipps won the toss and took the filly from Somethingroyal and Penny Chenery got Somethingroyal’s unborn foal and the colt. On March 30 at 12:10 Somethingroyal had a colt that was red chestnut with three white socks and a star with a narrow blaze. The secretary at Meadow Stable’s Elizabeth Ham came up with the name Secretariat.

    At first he did alright in races, his first race he finished fourth at the Aqueduct Racetrack, and then he started to win more and more races. Then everybody figured out what his trick was. Secretariat would stay in the back, in last place then he would pass all the other horses then taking first place and win the race. After winning many races he was able to race in the three races to win the Triple Crown. Secretariat’s biggest competition was Sham who was also racing for the Triple Crown. At first it did not look as if Secretariat would win the Kentucky Derby because the race before the Kentucky Derby (the Wood Memorial) Secretariat got third place. This was due to a large abscess in his mouth. Then at the Kentucky Derby it showed that he was better since he took first place. Then the next race (the Preakness Stakes) he won first place again. Many other horses before Secretariat had won these two races but were never able to win first in the Belmont Stakes. This caused a lot of people to think that Secretariat would not win the Belmont Stakes because the track was longer than the track in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes. Secretariat was known for being a fast horse not a distance horse, so many people thought he would not win, but he surprised them and won.

    After the Triple Crown Secretariat ran some more races which he did well in. He sired more than 600 foals. Then in 1989 he got laminitis which is an incurable hoof condition and he was put down after a month of treatment, he was 19 years old.