Secretariat continued to prove himself as one of the top Thoroughbreds of all time. He shipped to Chicago just three weeks after the Belmont Stakes, and easily won the Arlington Invitational at Arlington Park. He went to Saratoga, long known as the "graveyard of champions", and succumbed to the jinx, losing the Whitney Stakes to the Allen "the giant killer" Jerkens-trained Onion by a length. He then won the inaugural Marlboro Cup against a field that included Secretariat's stablemate, the 1972 Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Riva Ridge, top California stakes winner Cougar II, Canadian champion Kennedy Road, Onion, Travers winner Annihilate 'Em, and the 1972 American Champion Three-Year-Old Male Horse Key to the Mint. Secretariat ran 1:452⁄5 for 11⁄8 miles, then a world record for the distance.
Secretariat suffered another loss to an Allen Jerkens trainee, Prove Out, by 41⁄2 lengths in the 11⁄2 mile Woodward Stakes in his next start. Secretariat was then moved to the turf to defeat his opposition in both the Man O' War Stakes (11⁄2 miles) by five lengths Tentam, setting a still-standing track record time of 2:244⁄5.
Secretariat's owner entered into a syndication deal that precluded the horse racing past age three. Accordingly, Secretariat's last race[10][11] was against older horses in the Canadian International Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Canada on October 28, 1973. It was the second time in his career that he raced on grass and the first time he was asked to go one and five-eighths miles (just a furlong farther than he had already run twice that year). Secretariat won with another impressive performance. With Ron Turcotte out with a five-day suspension, Eddie Maple rode Secretariat to victory by 61⁄2 lengths.
Altogether, Secretariat won 16 of his 21 career races, with three seconds and one third, for in-the-money finishes in 20 of 21 starts, and total earnings of $1,316,808.
At age three, Secretariat was again named Horse of the Year, as well as winning Eclipse Awards as the American Champion Three-Year-Old Male Horse and the American Champion Male Turf Horse.
[edit]Honors and retirement
Secretariat's statue at Belmont Park
As part of his first crop at stud, Secretariat sired Canadian Bound, who was the first Thoroughbred yearling racehorse ever sold for more than US$1 million. At the 1976 Keeneland July sale, the auction bidding for Canadian Bound not only broke the $1 million barrier, but also the colt ended up being sold for $1.5 million.[12] Canadian Bound was a complete failure in racing, so for several years, the value of Secretariat's offspring declined considerably. However, he eventually sired a number of major stakes winners, including 1986 Horse of the Year Lady's Secret, 1988 Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner Risen Star, 1990 Melbourne Cup winner Kingston Rule, which broke the course record in Australia's richest race, and the 1994, 1995 winner of the G1 Pacific Classic, Tinners Way, born in 1990 to Secretariat's last crop.
He also sired General Assembly, which won the 1979 Travers Stakes at Saratoga while setting a still-standing race record of 2:00 flat. Andrew Beyer has said General Assembly's speed figure in that race was one of the fastest in history. Like Secretariat in the Belmont, General Assembly never duplicated that performance in the races that remained on his schedule. Secretariat was retired at three years old and General Assembly at four.
Ultimately, Secretariat sired as many as 600 foals. There has been some criticism of Secretariat as a stallion, due in part to his perceived inability to produce male offspring of his same caliber. However, he turned out to be a noted broodmare sire, being the maternal grandsire ("damsire") of 1992 Horse of the Year and successful sire A.P. Indy, Secretariat's grandson through his daughter Weekend Surprise, and sired by another Triple Crown winner, Seattle Slew. AP Indy is the sire of 2007 Belmont Stakes winner Rags to Riches, the first filly to win at Belmont since 1905. Secretariat is also the damsire of the great stallions Storm Cat (by Storm Bird), through his daughter Terlingua, herself an excellent racemare, and of Gone West, through his daughter Secrettame. Secretariat is also the great-grandsire of Giant's Causeway through his grandson Storm Cat and daughter Terlingua. Secretariat's genetic legacy may be linked in part to the likelihood that he carried the "x-factor", a trait linked to a large heart, carried only on the X chromosome, and thus, a trait Secretariat could only pass on via his daughters.[13]
[edit]Death
In the fall of 1989, Secretariat was afflicted with laminitis, a painful and often incurable hoof condition. When his condition failed to improve after a month of treatment, he was euthanized on October 4 at the age of 19.[14] Popular both as a Triple Crown champion and in retirement, Secretariat was mourned by millions and buried at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, given the rare honor of being buried whole; usually only the head, heart, and hooves of a winning race horse are buried, and the rest of the body is cremated.[15]
A necropsy revealed his heart was significantly larger than that of an ordinary horse.[16] An extremely large heart is a trait that occasionally occurs in Thoroughbreds, linked to a genetic condition passed down via the dam line, known as the "x-factor".[13][17][18][19] The x-factor can be traced to the historic racehorse Eclipse, which was necropsied after his death in 1789. Because Eclipse's heart appeared to be much larger than other horses, it was weighed, and found to be 14 pounds (6.4 kg), almost twice the normal weight. Eclipse is believed to have passed the trait on via his daughters, and pedigree research verified that Secretariat traces in his dam line to a daughter of Eclipse.[16] In the 20th century, the heart of Phar Lap was weighed and also documented to be 6.35 kilograms (14.0 lb),[20] or essentially the same size as that of Eclipse.
At the time of Secretariat's death, the veterinarian who performed the necropsy, Dr. Thomas Swerczek, head pathologist at the University of Kentucky, did not weigh Secretariat's heart, but stated, "We just stood there in stunned silence. We couldn’t believe it. The heart was perfect. There were no problems with it. It was just this huge engine."[14] Later, Swerczek also performed a necropsy on Sham, which died in 1993. Swerczek did weigh Sham's heart, and it was 18 pounds (8.2 kg). Based on Sham's measurement, and having necropsied both horses, he estimated Secretariat's heart probably weighed 22 pounds (10.0 kg),[16] or about two-and-three-quarters times as large as that of the average horse.
[edit]Posthumous recognition
On October 16, 1999, in the winner's circle at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, the U.S. Postal Service honored Secretariat, unveiling a 33-cent postage stamp with his image. ESPN listed him 35th of the 100 greatest athletes of the 20th century, the highest of three non-humans on the list (the other two were also racehorses: Man o' War at 84th and Citation at 97th ). Secretariat was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1974, the year following his Triple Crown. In 2005, he appeared in ESPN Classic's show "Who's No. 1?". In the list of "Greatest Sports Performances" (by individual athletes), the horse was the only nonhuman on the list, with his run at Belmont ranking second behind Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game. On May 2, 2007, Secretariat was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, marking the first time an animal received this honor.[21] Secretariat, a Disney live-action film written by Mike Rich and directed by Randall Wallace, was released on October 8, 2010.[22] A new award created in 2011 titled "Secretariat Vox Populi" (voice of the people) was presented by Penny Chenery to the first honoree, the 2010 Horse of the Year, Zenyatta. This annual award will acknowledge the horse that brings the most excitement and attraction to the sport.[citation needed]
[edit]Race record at age two
Wins:
Sanford Stakes
Hopeful Stakes
Belmont Futurity
Laurel Futurity
Garden State Futurity
Second
Champagne Stakes (disqualified for interference)
[edit]Race record at age three
Wins
Kentucky Derby (stakes record of 1:59.2, still standing)
Preakness Stakes (Daily Racing Form clockers claimed he established a new track record, but a malfunctioning official timer did not, and the clockers' time has not been officially recognized)
Belmont Stakes (track record of 2:24, still stands fastest time over 1.5 miles in history on a dirt track)
Bay Shore Stakes
Gotham Stakes (tied track record)
Arlington Invitational
Marlboro Cup (new world record)
Man o' War Stakes (new course record)
Canadian International Stakes
Second
Whitney Handicap
Woodward Stakes
Third
Wood Memorial Stakes
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