Secretariat.com

Happy heavenly 42nd birthday Secretariat. It just seems like yesterday that as a 16 year old in 1973, you were my hero.

Well Secretariat fan's it has been a little while since I have Posted here on Secretariat.com, the # 1 website for the BEST in American Horseracing and The BEST website for complete coverage of The GREATEST Thoroughbred racehorse of ALL TIME - SECRETARIAT...I want to Wish SECRETARIAT A GREAT HAPPY BIRTHDAY...Secretariat was foaled on March 30th, 1970 in Doswell Virginia at 12:10 AM on a chilly cold morning...Secretariat was foaled (Born) in a foaling shed at The Meadow Stud Stables...Secretariat came at the time of the Watergate Tape scandal and the Vietnam War...Secretariat IS/WAS America's Hero and America's Super Horse of the 20th Century...Again, I want to say a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WELL BELOVED SECRETARIAT, THE GREATEST RACEHORSE OF ALL TIME...Also, I want to say hello to my dear friend's at Secretariat.com and to Kate & John Tweedy and to Ronnie Turcotte who was the jockey of Secretariat...

to Alain, years ago i calculated the odds of a horse not only winning the triple crown, but setting a track record in each of the races. To set one track record was rare, not many were set in the history of the derby, preakness, and belmont. But to do it in each was remote. If my calculations were correct, one stands a better chance of drawing a royal flush from a deck of shuffled cards than doing what secretariat did. That is why he has been the only one to do it. A few horses set records, but perhaps in only one of the races. To do what Sec did required not only good speed which alot of horses have, but the ability to sustain it over long distances. Endurance is what separates Sec from the rest of the greats. ManO could have done it too, but not the way Sec did and to conclude the series the way he did in the Belmont which was simply off the charts. Kelso maybe, his two mile Gold Cup runs where phenomenal, not even breaking a sweat holding the two fastest times at the distance, and the last record set at the age of 7. He had incredible endurance. The combination of endurance and durability is what separates the great from the great. Winning the triple requires both, but doing each in record time and topping it off with the Belmont performance is what separates Sec from the rest, all an indication of singular endurance and durability. Two of his records still stand today, the preakness holding the stakes record. I stand to be corrected but I believe he still holds the track record for 9 at Belmont, the one he set in the Marlboro. 9 is a common distance at Belmont.

The arguments in favor of Secretariat are so numerous, so obvious , so powerful and so absolute that one should be able to sell a freezer to Eskimos with them .

Of course , I challenge any uninformed expert to argue here !! I personally commit myself to answer them .

To Russell : A lost race says nothing about a horse`s ability but a won race says everything .A horse can have a poor record ( 10-2-2....8 = 22 races ) but have 3 records in concrete which are maintained against winds and tides .These 3 records do not care about the 19 others !! The number of records doesn`t matter because it`s the quality that speaks for itself . Even if Man O`War made 20 records in 20 races he would be still below mister Secretariat as all his records are still there and have been for 49 years !! This is not the case for Man O`War . Fallen records are under those that are still standing , just as ordinary lost races are under those that are won . It is the same reasoning and the word ``record`` becomes only a convenient label to find its way , but this label is subject to the same reasoning as the ordinary races .
Secretariat and Kelso...handcuff me .
P.S : I don`t pretend to undo what you said .

Happy Birthday to Bill Nack. Thanks Bill wherever your spirit is resting. You authored and set in place one of the many corner stones of immortality for the Mighty Secretariat and his family and caretakers.

The final analysis....period !
At the time of 1999 vote , 26 years has passed since the 1973 Triple-Crown and all the Secretariat records had still not melted ( The famous revolutionary ice mentioned below ) where as for the same period 1920 / 1946 most of the Man O`War records had fallen and therefore melted. . . . . worse ; the period 1920 / 1946 was more suitable for the improvement for the records whereas for the period 1973 / 1999 it was much more difficult or even impossible because of the famous Equestrian Horizon where the records are not or almost not any more improvable . What more do you want as a reasoning ?

Remembering Chic Anderson, the track side 'Voice' for Secretariat's 1973 Triple Crown victories. Born in 1931, Chic would have turned 90 years old tomorrow. What a lucky man you were to have been there and seen it all!

Suppose someone invents a revolutionary ice cream that lasts 5 times longer than regular ice cream before melting . Would you take this ice cream instead of regular ice cream and put it in your small portable fridge when you go to a park for a meal ? Of course you would ! For speed records it is the same because the records that have not melted are superior to the ones that have melted , so the ones that have broken . Secretariat`s records were still not melted in 1999 when the vote for the vote of the horse of the century was held , while Man O`War`s were , and yet the voters erred , where children would have understood . Is the madness is this absurd vote or to keep it when the records still haven`t melted after 50 years ? Perhaps this vote predicted the covid . . . . .? ( !! )

I'll never forget the 1973 Belmont Stakes.
First, you must understand America and us Baby Boomers at that time. We were getting older. We had our doubts about Santa, Easter Bunny, etc.. America had very little, if anything, to be proud of.
Vietnam, Watergate, A President resigning, heck even the Green Bay Packers could not have a winning season!
Then along comes this red horse with the checkered head cloth. About everything he did he did it HIS way, and like any proud American he won doing it his own way. Everywhere he set foot a track record would fall. He had bombed the sacred 2 minute barrier in the 1 1/4 mile Kentucky Derby. He still owns that record. And he would have another in the Preakness, had there not been problems with the Pimlico clocks. But The Belmont, the 1.5 mile Belmont Stakes is where he would leave his mark for eternity. Even though the field was tiny, all America stopped mowing their lawns, grilling their hot dogs, etc. We ALL NEEDED to see him and see him do something great. Just to remind everyone that America can still dig down and perform miracles when they were needed. I won't bore you with the entire race, but I must mention a couple items, to give those who were not yet born an understanding of what America's favorite son did that Saturday afternoon. As soon as the race started there was simply NO DOUBT who was going to win. What he would accomplish while doing it was another matter. After 3/4 of a mile, only HALF of the huge Belmont stakes distance, the public at home and at the track was jolted by announcer "Chic"Johnson, his voice a full octave higher than normal and he was so awe struck, I for one wondered if the Second Coming had just occurred in the Belmont booth! Then the words slowly sunk in, "Secretariat has just DESTROYED the Belmont track record for 6 furlongs!' ( Dang! I told myself I wasn't going to cry recalling these once in ten millenniums events. Guess I lied to myself). With another 3/4 of a mile to go in the Belmont, Secretariat has SHATTERED the Belmont track record for 6 furlongs!! I for one ran my fingers in my ears. I just knew I did not hear that correctly. Oh but we ALL did. And two of the horses foolhardy enough to TRY to stay close to him ended up walking off the track, as the lactic acid in their bodies would not allow them to run one more step. They were totally exhausted. But he was not done! Not by a long shot. We watched him run down the never ending backstretch. And I dare say ANYONE who heard Chic's words that day will NEVER forget them. As he entered the turn, Chic yelled out for every American to hear:"AND SECRETARIAT IS MOVING LIKE A TREMENDOUS MACHINE!!" He exited the fourth turn about the same time the remaining horses were entering the third turn. The only question remaining was by how much would Big Red win? Lengths become meaningless after a certain distance. Nobody refers the distance between Earth and the Sun in lengths. After he crossed the finish line, and the crowd gave one tumultuous cheer, it started to get quiet, as everyone wanted to hear the time. Had these other champions been adversely effected all at once, somehow? Then Chic gathered himself up and with a cracking voice, he said in effect: "We have just witnessed something that has NEVER happened before. Secretariat has run the 1 1/2 miles in... (one more pause to be certain this was correct. It was) Secretariat has broken the WORLD'S RECORD for the distance of 1 1/2 miles, completing the distance in 2:24 FLAT!" That is two full seconds faster than the previous track record. His margin of victory estimated and later confirmed at 31 lengths. That time of 2:24 has never been equaled, let alone surpassed. In just a couple more Belmont's it will have been One Half of a Century since that day in June. Fifty, (50 years), and it has never been equaled on dirt.
As everyone left Belmont that day, we all stood a little bit straighter, carried or heads a bit higher. Yes, America has had some terrible events occur in the last couple years, but do not EVER give up on The Stars and Stripes! No matter how downtrodden we feel, how badly things have gone, you just never know where the next American Hero will rise up and even the score! All I can say in closing is I am glad there is not a Skype camera here. Recounting that unbelievable day in June of 1973 has me looking like a blubbering fool. But, in this case I am not the least bit ashamed of it. This is about Secretariat.. one of the Greatest Americans of the 20th Century!!