Allowance

In the last week of July 1972, 2-year-old Secretariat and most of the top horses in trainer Lucien Laurin’s barn were loaded onto horse vans and shipped from Belmont Park to fabled Saratoga Race Course, in upstate Saratoga Springs, New York, the late-summer vacation “Spa” where humans (and their best horses) have headed for fun and recreation for more than a century. Saratoga is 184 miles north of New York City, past Albany, the state capital, and on up to the edge of the lake and mountain country of the Adirondacks. Fresh air, green-leafed trees, summer home rentals, art auctions, a famous yearling horse auction – and a few special weeks of exciting Thoroughbred racing. Typically nothing absolutely earthshaking is decided there, racing wise – the Kentucky Derby is in Kentucky, the Preakness in Maryland, and the Belmont Stakes in New York City, for example. But the horses at Saratoga are top-notch, and there are plenty of interesting races, including some historic stakes won by the greatest stars of the American turf. The emphasis at Saratoga is on races for young horses. The future stars of the sport are on display – and that included, that summer of ’72, a muscular young chestnut colt named Secretariat.

Of course, nothing moves faster than news about racehorses, and the “word” on Secretariat preceded his arrival at Saratoga. Racing fans, horse people, and experts of varying degrees and specialties collect every summer a Saratoga – and many brought with them a built-up expectation of what kind of racehorse they were about to see.

One of those gathered experts was Charles Hatton, a famed racing columnist for the Daily Racing Form and the old Morning Telegraph. Hatton was clocking horses at Saratoga in the 19-teens, and had been the writer who coined the phrase “Triple Crown” in 1930, when he covered Gallant Fox romping through what he called the “Jewels” of the crown.

Hatton was still writing for the Form in 1972, and penned some very detailed lines about the conformation – the physique – of Penny Chenery’s red colt. Hatton covered the colt from wide-flaring nostrils that could take in great volumes of air, to the look of his eye, and attitude, through the big barrel of Secretariat’s chest, to the straightness of the last length of his hind legs that would propel his great body forward. “This construction comes to a sort of scooting action behind,” Hatton wrote. “He gets his hind parts far under himself in action, and the drive of the hindlegs is tremendous, as he follows through like a golfer.”

Later, Secretariat’s famed biographer Bill Nack found out that Hatton had made a special scouting mission at dawn to see Secretariat up-close on one of the colt’s first mornings at Saratoga.

Hatton told Nack he couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw Secretariat.

“I just couldn’t because I’ve made a kind of thing of looking at horses since before the First World War, when I was a kid, but I never saw a horse like that.”

Hatton felt like he was finally seeing the perfect flawless diamond.

“It was like seeing a bunch of gravel and there was the Kohinoor lying in there.”

Now the horse had to prove his promise on the track. Coming off his July 15 maiden victory, Secretariat moved up in class at Saratoga. The next step in competition was an "allowance" race, for horses who’d all won at least one race. The horse also carried a new rider, with Ron Turcotte taking the reins after having been unavailable for the Meadow Stable colt's first two starts. Turcotte ranked with the top jockeys in New York, and nationally, and was the go-to rider for trainer Lucien Laurin.

The Big Red horse was no longer a secret to the serious racing fans. The railbirds who annually make a late-summertime pilgrimage to Saratoga Race Course would be looking for big things from Secretariat, and the son of Bold Ruler was bet down to 40 cents on the dollar.

Out of the gate Turcotte allowed Secretariat to “settle” into stride and find his rhythm. The horse was quickly up to speed and galloped comfortably along behind the leaders in seventh. It was supposed to be a routine race, and Turcotte gave the talented young horse a routine ride. Through the turn coming to the home stretch Turcotte asked Secretariat to run, and eased him out widest of all. Plenty of room for the big horse, and Secretariat did not disappoint. In just strides, Secretariat had caught the leader, Ross Miron, and moved along to win comfortably.

There are continuing steps up the allowance race ladder, races for horses who have won one race, then for those who have won two races, etc. However, this would be the first and last allowance race in which Secretariat would ever run. He was too good. It was time for stakes races.