First Secretary
Secretariat's Forgotten Firstborn Foal
Do you know the story of Secretariat’s firstborn foal? In celebration of Father's Day last weekend, this new page tells the fascinating and little-known tale of First Secretary — the very first baby sired by Secretariat. We think you will enjoy the twists and turns that came both before and after Secretariat was quietly bred to an Appaloosa mare, setting in motion the widely anticipated birth of the champion's first offspring.
Please note: Much of the text below is excerpted from a 2003 article by journalist Hope Holland, courtesy of the publisher The Equiery. We’ve made a few additions, marked in italics, that we think you’ll enjoy as well.
The Appaloosa turned up in the most unexpected places but in no place was it more of a shock than in the first successful mating of the super horse of the racing world, Secretariat.
After the big red horse’s stunning wins in his first career as a racehorse, there were tidings of troubles in the breeding shed. It is not unusual for a youngster to have some problems making the transition from the shed row of the track to the breeding shed of the stud farm, but this was Secretariat, the super horse of Triple Crown repute and it was considered newsworthy that things were not proceeding well for the big colt. Speculation was rife.
In an article in Sports Illustrated [entitled “They Used to Call Him Sexy"], there was a frank discussion of Secretariat’s problems in the breeding shed. His sperm had been tested a half dozen times and found to show immature sperm in differing amounts.
Even President Gerald Ford joined the conversation. As reported by the New York Times, Ford, speaking at a fundraising dinner in Louisville, alluded to the champion's early breeding challenges by comparing critics of Ford's economic policy to Secretariat, saying they were “fast on their feet, but not producing much.”
(However, following Secretariat's first season at stud and an impressive fertility success rate, President Ford would apologize for having cast the humorous aspersion, saying, "Obviously, Secretariat suffers a similar problem with all of us in public life. The actual facts seldom catch up with mistaken first impressions in the public mind. And [indeed]—my critics could never match his 94 percent success record.")
Upon Secretariat's retirement to Claiborne Farm, the world looked forward to the arrival of the next generation of Big Red babies. (Tony Leonard Collection)
Enter an Appaloosa mare named Leola. Leola was a nurse-mare owned by Bill Taylor, then manager of Kentucky’s Claiborne Farm. Leola was bred to Secretariat and, in due time, pronounced in foal.
A 13-year-old registered Appaloosa at the time of her breeding, Leola had been sired by an Appaloosa stallion named Yellow House on a North Dakota Indian reservation, then sold in the 1963 San Antonio Sales for the very respectable amount of $1050. However, in the eyes of the Thoroughbred community an Appaloosa bloodline was of no consequence, and Claiborne's Taylor estimated Leola's worth at no more than $600 at the time.
Leola was bred December 8, and in early January 1974 the announcement of Leola's pregnancy was big news. Bill Nack and Steve Jacobsen of Newsday wrote, “They can pass out cigars at Claiborne Farm Friday. Mr. and Mrs. Secretariat of Paris, Ky., are proud to announce that they expect a blessed event some time in November."
The news was also a relief to Meadow Stable's Penny Chenery, Claiborne Farm and the shareholders who had syndicated Secretariat for a world-record sum of $6.08 million for his potential ability to sire future champions. Had the heavily insured Triple Crown winner proven to be infertile, the Newsday article facetiously noted, "Mrs. Tweedy [Chenery] expects that the horse would be running in England next year under Lloyd's of London's colors."
With their usual hyperbole, the sports writers (who were having a field day with the fact that the first issue of Secretariat would be from a déclassé dam) named Leola ‘mother of the year’.
His Kingdom for This Horse
Jack Nankivil, a vice president of finance at St. Mary's College in Minnesota and part-time Appaloosa breeder was not so dismissive of Leola. He viewed the expecting mare as equine royalty who could provide him with a significant financial opportunity.
After getting an introduction to the horse world through the auspices of three horse crazy teenaged daughters who shared a passion for Appaloosas, by 1971 Nankivil owned his own breeding operation, named Sahaptin which was situated in Winona, Minnesota. Nankivil read of the impending birth of a Secretariat foal to Taylor’s App mare and decided that he needed to make a call to Taylor in KY.
He was surprised to learn that his call was one of many from others with the same idea. Leola was a mare of decent repute on her own, a registered mare who had sold for a record price at that time in Texas in 1963. By the standards of her time, Leola was a good Appaloosa mare. Several breeders and not a few mountebanks had contacted Taylor with offers for the mare but he was not ready to make a deal for the mare immediately.
Nankivil was able to make an appointment with Taylor to see the mare and enter an offer for her in what was to become a bidding war for a mare who was suddenly a very important broodmare in the annals of Appaloosa history. He assured Taylor of his intention to use the horse responsibly as a breeding asset to the Appaloosa breed (instead of a display animal to simply raise money in a side show manner) and was assured of first refusal at any bid.
Nankivil had astutely assessed the situation and acted accordingly. Years later, he reflected, "Bill [Taylor] just didn't want the circus connotations. He had every opportunity in the book from people who had all sorts of plans for the mare. What he wanted was to preserve some dignity in the business."
It took two trips to KY and an investment that was big enough to cause Nankivil a trip to the bank to take a mortgage on his home to achieve the purchase. There are several stories about the amount but it is estimated that Nankivil purchased the mare Leola for an amount in the neighborhood of $25,000.
Nankivil did hedge his bet with the gods of fortune. At the time that he was apprised of the required purchase price, Nankivil sold lifetime breeding rights to Leola’s foal-to-be to five other breeders for $2500 each. By the time of the foal’s birth he had sold a total of 15 lifetime breeding rights to other breeders for $2500 each. All of these people were gambling on a colt.
By mid-November of 1974 the media began to descend on Sahaptin to document the imminent arrival of the eagerly anticipated foal.
At the time of the foal’s birth the NBC and CBS news cameras were set up in the tack room of Nankivil’s barn awaiting the impending birth with bated breath. They were not allowed to set up in the barn for fear of annoying the mother-to-be.
A seasoned horseman and breeder Nankivil later reflected, "We wouldn't let anybody inside with her. I figured she had enough on her mind without all the lights and people."
Also not allowed was representation by the ABC network. Nankivil, a longtime Minnesota Vikings fan had taken umbrage at what he considered slighting remarks made by [ABC sports announcer] Howard Cosell about his favorite football team and refused to allow ABC access to his farm.
As Nankivil said at the time, “…this was one small man in the Midwest who would never have another chance to make his opinion felt taking a stand against Cosell,” and Nankivil was exercising his right while he had it.
The gods of fortune often smile on those children of theirs who take the offensive against the world and, true to form, they smiled upon Nankivil and upon the mare Leola.
At a little after midnight on November 15, 1974, Leola produced a big, fancy chestnut foal with a bright white blanket and three white stockings. More important, it was a colt.
Nankivil's farm manager took one look and announced, "It's a colt alright." The exact time of birth was noted as 12:12 a.m. (Note: If Leola had given birth 120 seconds earlier the foal would have been born the exact same time as his famed father).
For breeding purposes, it was essential to Nankivil's business plan that Leola would drop a colt. Only a male would allow for the economic windfall of multiple breedings each year. In fact, Pat Livingston of the the Pittsburgh Press wrote that if the foal had been a filly it would have been "six more years, if ever — before Nankivil would be able to capitalize on horse racing's most recognizable name."
Nankivil would later say: "If it had been a filly, we wouldn't have been ruined. But what we wanted, of course, was a colt who could become a sire."
With the question of gender fortuitously settled, the celebration as Sahaptin went into full swing as Nankivil proclaimed, "It's the happiest day of my life."
Jack Nankivil tends to Leola and her newborn foal by Secretariat.
“The little son of a bitch is a stud colt!”
~ Jack Nankivil
The CBS and NBC representatives in the tack room were stunned when Nankivil, fueled by a couple of slugs of Kentucky bourbon (not his usual potion of Scotch, but taken in honor of the origins of his colt’s sire) burst into the tack room and announced, “The little son of a bitch is a stud colt!”
Regarding the foal's general appearance, looks were significant to both Nankivil and the Claiborne syndicate.
Within the horse breeding industry, there has long been the widely held belief that the stallions most successful in transmitting their racing and breeding form were those who “stamped" their progeny, siring foals that looked like them in color, conformation and physical features. The hope was that Secretariat would be pre-potent, passing on his best and most distinctive characteristics to his offspring.
Their hopes were realized as descriptions of the foal were reported in newspapers across the country. The Scranton, Pennsylvania Tribune reported : "He seemed the spitting image of his sire, with unusually thick-muscled forearms, tremendous shoulders, an arched neck, and, of course that rump."
The Austin (TX) American-Statesman quoted the elated Nankivil: "If we'd ordered from a catalog we couldn't have gotten anything better because this horse looks like a miniature Secretariat... He's got three socks just like Secretariat does and a blaze on his face. It's the most beautiful colt I've ever seen."
Denied His Rightful Name
Considering the time that he had waited and the amount of the mortgage on his house, it is probably understandable that Nankivil in the words of his daughter, “…went a little crazy” that night. Within a very short time Nankivil had sold five more lifetime breedings to the horse for $15,000 each and, very probably, cleared the remaining mortgage on his property.
Nankivil registered the colt, christened First Secretary, with the Canadian Appaloosa Horse Club, which allowed him to put down that the horse was out of the mare Leola and by Secretariat. The American Appaloosa Association would allow Nankivil only to say that the colt was out of Leola and by ‘an unnamed Thoroughbred sire’ as he had no breeder’s certificate, in spite of the national hoopla surrounding the foal’s birth. Nankivil said that he would register with the American Appaloosa Association if they allowed him to say ‘unnamed Thoroughbred winner of the Triple Crown’ but they declined that as well.
With the eventual combining of the Canadian and the American Appaloosa groups the problem solved itself, since each organization had agreed to recognize the other’s standard, the foals from First Secretary were eligible for registration with the American club.
Leola and First Secretary command the cover of the February 1975 issue of Appaloosa News.
Along with the Appaloosa News above, numerous other equine publications featured First Secretary and kept track of his development. In August 1975, the Winona Daily News reported the son of the legend was growing up and at the age of nine months had reached more than 14 hands in height and weighed in at 650 pounds - "the largest we've ever raised" said Nankivil. “{W}hen he moves, he’s just music."
With admirable foresight Nankivil had promised the initial owners of lifetime breedings to First Secretary that he would limit the breedings to the horse in each year to 50 or 60 mares (with necessary returns) so that he would not devalue the horse with cheap mares. His first choice of mares to be bred were Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred race mares. Pumping the mighty Secretariat’s genes into the start gate of Appaloosa racing seemed a sure bet.
The theory behind this decision was that a failed race horse might very well become a show horse, but breeding a show horse would definitely not result in a racing prospect as well. First Secretary came to stud at age four with no show or race record, being deemed too valuable a breeding animal to be risked in training or transit to races or competitions.
It should be noted that physically, First Secretary could have started his breeding career in the 1976 calendar year, however Nankivil was reluctant to follow that practice. Too-early breeding could potentially harm the young colt in a number of ways and would only result in an ensuing crop of late born foals who would face an impossible disadvantage on the racetrack against their elder competition. As a result First Secretary began his stud career early in 1977.
First Secretary grows into his 1400-lb. frame as a stallion on Nankivil's Sahaptin Farm in Winona, Minnesota.
And The Beat Goes On
On January 15 , 1978, Nankivil's investment matures with the birth of First Secretary's first foal — and Secretariat's first grandson — at Sahaptin. In the Winona Dalily News, Nankivil described the foal as "a big chestnut colt with two hind socks and a star and a white Appaloosa blanket," adding, "We really got lucky. The colt is really a beauty [He} looks very much like his sire — and that's of course what we're after."
In his first year at stud he was bred to 43 mares, got 40 of them in foal and put color on three quarters of his foals. In this he did exceptionally well as fully half of the mares that he bred were plain colored themselves. In his second year at stud he improved his record by getting 60 of 63 mares in foal.
At maturity First Secretary reputedly stood close to 17 hands and, by all accounts, was the image of his sire, if you added the necessary Appaloosa variations in coloring. Although he was not being bred specifically for the show ring his foals were early on doing well in the halter classes throughout the midwest and the south. Several were winners and champions at halter in their yearling years. First Secretary’s first crop to race were a promising group as well. Of five starters, all five finished in the money and three were winners.
First Secretary stood at Jack Nankivil’s farm until January of 1988 when Nankivil called Randy Floyd and offered to sell the horse to him. First Secretary moved to New Hampshire to stand at Floyd’s farm, in Northwood, NH for a stud fee of $1000.
First Secretary stood in Maryland for the last three years of his life. Meredith Morrell (James), brought the horse to her farm in Rising Sun, MD in 1990. Morrell was a devotee of the Appaloosa Sport Horse and owning First Secretary gave her a chance to cross him onto both Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred mares to complete the work that she had undertaken to bring an all around American sport horse to life within the Appaloosa breed. In 1993, he was euthanized from complications due to colic.
His Own Rightful Legacy
In his lifetime, First Secretary sired not only race prospects and Appaloosa show horses but also sport horses of superior quality. His foals performed well in dressage, endurance and in the hunter/jumper rings, across the nation and internationally. He has sons and daughters in such far-flung places as England and Australia.
He sired a total of 247 horses, including several sons that went on to be successful sires as well.
In racing, First Secretary is the sire of 39 starters that won a total of $53,100 with 8 winners, 1 Stakes Winner, 2 Stakes Placed and 3 Register of Merit racers. He sired 25 horses that were shown in Appaloosa shows and earned a total of 1373 points. The number of his foals that went on to show on the open circuits cannot be ascertained, but it is probable that many of them went into the open shows and did well in the hunter classes.
“First Secretary reputedly stood close to 17 hands and, by all accounts, was the image of his sire”
First Secretary left a long legacy. He sired a total of 247 horses, including several sons that went on to be successful sires as well. In the show ring, his foals gained widespread success. His son Jetta Rue was a national and world show champion in 1990 and became a sire. Others sons and daughters with show-ring success included Something’s Sweet (a 1983 world champion in the trail category), Helen Wheels (1984 hunter hack world champion), Nanny Brow (1985 world champion in senior hunter under saddle), Suite As Sugar (the high point horse at the 1985 national show) and Ms. Secretary (1987 reserve national champion as an open jumper). Internationally, In The Black was an Australian national show champion while State Secretary won a similar award in New Zealand. First Draft became a prominent Appaloosa stallion in England while Secretary Royal won several championships in Switzerland.
A chip off the old block: First Secretary showing off strong similarities to his famed sire.
Hope Holland concluded her article with a personal observation regarding First Secretary's progeny:
Equally important is the fact that his foals are horses that are easy to live with. Local owner of a First Secretary daughter, Kathy Erisman, says of her mare, First Folly (nicknamed “Pocket”) that, “I love her to death and I will never get rid of her. She will always have a place in my barn! ... This is my trail mare now and I wouldn’t give her up for any amount of money. I love riding her.”
And when you come right down to it, that is the measure of a horse, after all, isn’t it?
We think Secretariat's late Hall of Fame jockey Ron Turcotte might have said the same.
~ The Secretariat.com team