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SECRETARIAT'S Last Days

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Shammy Davis View Drop Down
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    Posted: 26 Jan 2013 at 11:21am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote djebel Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Apr 2018 at 5:50pm
reductio ad absurdum
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote acacia alba Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Apr 2018 at 7:34pm
I visited his grave in 2013, and it had fresh red roses on it.   I had always wanted to visit that grave, and now I have.  Have to admit I cried.
animals before people.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote djebel Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 May 2023 at 2:08pm




reductio ad absurdum
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote acacia alba Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 May 2023 at 5:18pm
The “Secretariat: Larger than Life" traveling tour has been announced!
Marking the 50th anniversary of Secretariat’s historic Triple Crown sweep, Secretariat.com and the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame have announced a traveling tour celebrating the legendary racehorse and his still-standing records in the #KentuckyDerby, #Preakness, and #BelmontStakes.
The tour will travel to Churchill Downs (May 3-6), Pimlico (May 18-20), and Belmont Park (June 8-11) — the racetracks where Secretariat’s name was forged into legend — before moving to Saratoga Springs, New York for the summer season. See details: www.secretariat.com/fan-club/news/
animals before people.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote djebel Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Jun 2023 at 5:01pm
reductio ad absurdum
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote diomed Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Jun 2023 at 9:54pm
Secretariat was a great horse but consider a few things.

USA race timing does not start at the opening of the stalls but when the horses pass through a beam a distance down the track.  I do not have the numbers now for different tracks but it could be 70 feet.  It is different at each track.  At times the beam has been triggered by vehicles, birds, or other things.


Secretariat had no challenge in the Belmont Stakes.

The horse that stayed with Secretaiat over the first half mile, Sham, "later discovered that Sham had suffered a hairline fracture of his right front cannon bone during the race, which ended his racing career".   Sham finished 5th (last) in the Belmont, the racecall saying "stopped badly".  Sham had finished 2nd in the Kentucky Derby, beaten 2 1/2 lengths.
2nd finisher, Twice A Prince, never won a Graded race, and had a record of 3 wins from 23 starts, was 12th in the 1973 Kentucky Derby.
3rd finisher, My Gallant, won one Graded race, had 5 wins from 27 starts, was 9th in the 1973 Kentucky Derby.
4th finisher, Pvt Smiles, had 0 wins from 19 starts, had not run in the 1973 Kentucky Derby or Preakness Stakes.

I also think the Belmont track may have been specially prepared for a fast time.
Years ago I had a piece about the 1973 Belmont but can not find it.


Secretariat did not have the official race record for the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont until 39 years later (23 years after the horse died), and as you can see below, the Preakness record was gained by pressure from his 90 year old owner.

BALTIMORE (AP) — Calling Secretariat a Triple Crown winner actually might understate his dominance. The colt not only won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes in 1973 — he finished each in record time.

It just took 39 years for that part of his incredible sweep to become official.

When Secretariat won the Preakness a half-century ago, he was a star but not yet a legend. His 31-length romp in the Belmont was still to come, and although his back-to-front surge on the first turn at Pimlico was spectacular, the colt’s final time of 1 minute, 55 seconds wasn’t all that noteworthy. It was a second slower than the Preakness mark set two years earlier by Canonero II.

But the dispute over that time was only beginning, and it wasn’t until 2012 when Penny Chenery — Secretariat’s owner — finally succeeded in securing her horse’s Preakness record. She died in 2017 at age 95.

“It was something that Mrs. Chenery really wanted to do in her lifetime,” said Amy Zimmerman, a senior vice president at Santa Anita Park who also works with NBC on its Preakness coverage. “She wanted to set the record straight. She’s the one that really pushed for it to be done.”


He was a very good horse, but a poor sire.
I am doubtful about the track surface in the Belmont, the quality of the field, the American recording of race times and the later shaping of finishing times.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote diomed Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Jun 2023 at 10:02pm

The beam-based systems used by American Teletimer and the other U.S. operator, Teleview, are relatively straightforward. As the horses make their way around the track, the first horse to reach each point of call breaks a beam running straight across the track to a sensor on the other side, triggering the timing system.

The sensors are approximately 4 1/2 feet high, with the beam expanding to approximately a vertical foot at the crest of the track, so that the beam “is aiming for the nose,” said Joel Rosenzweig, the president and chief executive of American Teletimer. A time is recorded at each point of call, including the finish, where the final time is verified by the time stamp on the picture generated by the photo-finish camera.

There are some nuances. For example, under the system, the sensors that will be triggered during the running of the race are active only for approximately 20 seconds. That limits the amount of time that the sensors can be triggered by objects other than the horses in the race, such as outriders, ambulances, birds, a player’s program hanging over the rail, or even a wind-tossed umbrella (it has happened).

The most significant nuance – and the biggest source of controversy surrounding the timing of races – is when the timing system actually starts. In North American racing, for reasons that are not entirely clear, almost every race is run at a distance greater than the official distance listed in the program. The extra distance between where the starting gate is placed and the official start of the race is called the “run-up.” (In two recent columns, Andrew Beyer, the speed-figure publisher and handicapping expert, has begun arguing for the elimination of run-ups from North American racing.)

Run-ups vary widely from distance to distance, from course to course, and from track to track, and there is no rule as to what a run-up should be at any specific distance for all tracks. As a result, run-ups at U.S. tracks are at a hodgepodge of distances.

For example, the run-up for a one-mile race at Santa Anita is 172 feet, according to charts; the run-up for a one-mile race at Gulfstream is only five feet; and the run-up for a race going one mile and 40 yards at Tampa Bay Downs is 24 feet, which means horses in a one-mile race at Santa Anita run farther than horses in a race at a mile and 40 yards at Tampa Bay Downs.

Different run-up distances are one of the reasons why some tracks seem to consistently post faster or slower times than other tracks, especially at shorter distances. If horses have a long run-up, they are more likely to be at full speed when the timing of the race starts than if there is a short run-up.

All timing systems disregard the run-up, whatever the distance, since it is not part of the official distance of the race. As to why run-up distances differ, it mostly has to do with specific track configurations that limit where starting gates can be placed.

To determine when the timer should start, the operator of a beam-based system works backward from the finish line to identify the sensor that corresponds to the listed distance of the race. That sensor is designated the starting beam, and when that beam is broken, the timing of the race starts. If there is not a sensor for the official start, then the operator manually starts the timer when the first horse reaches the official starting point of the race.

Ron Couturier, the chief operating officer of American Teletimer who has worked for the company for 40 years, said he believes the run-up is a holdover from the days when horse races were run on dusty American streets, well over a century ago. In those days, the horses were usually given a running start, eliminating any starting-line vagaries or misbehavior that might obscure the horse with the most raw speed.

When the starting gate was introduced in 1939 – and was nearly universally adopted by Thoroughbred tracks within a year – tracks were still accustomed to granting a run-up, so the practice stuck.


https://www.drf.com/news/timing-everything-correctly-timing-race-more-complicated-it-looks

In the above link

racetrack veterans often caution clock-watchers that “time only matters in jail,”

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote diomed Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Jun 2023 at 10:07pm
too good to be true
If you say that something seems too good to be true, you are suspicious of it because it seems better than you had expected, and you think there may be something wrong with it that you have not noticed.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote diomed Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Jun 2023 at 10:52pm
Two defeats for Secretariat, by horses trained by H Allen Jerkens

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote diomed Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Jun 2023 at 9:14pm
More links on USA race "distances" and "times".

USA time v European times
The USA horse is running for perhaps seven seconds from his starting stall and as he runs at speed past the next set of starting stalls the stalls open and the European horses can start from a standstill.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote goldey Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Jun 2023 at 10:56pm
Is he not the sire of the Flemington 3200 metres , via Kingston Rule . 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote goldey Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Jun 2023 at 10:58pm
Course record that is ,l.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote acacia alba Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Jun 2023 at 11:38pm
Kingston Rule still holds the record for the Melb Cup.
Dont care what the statts ,,etc,,say,,,Secretariat will still be the wonder horse for mine.
I saw him,,,,
No horse does what he did.

animals before people.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote acacia alba Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Jun 2023 at 7:03pm
animals before people.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote djebel Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Jun 2023 at 10:55pm

The Remains of One Magnificent Day

 at 6:33 pm | Back to: Shared News

Updated: June 7, 2023 at 11:04 am

The crowd at Secretariat's Belmont | Getty Images

By 

The 50 years that have passed since Secretariat's Herculean victory in the Belmont Stakes have taken a toll on the number of the 67,605 souls who came to witness history and saw a day sanctified by the racing gods. But then, unlike Secretariat, we are mere mortals. I am one of the dwindling number of those who were present on that sweltering day in June 1973. The memory of that magnificent day remains, intensely vibrant and charged with emotion, but it is now more a mosaic than a painting, with some chips lost to time. These are the images of that turbulent time and of that glorious day that have endured:

In the spring of 1973, a country steeped in discord was waiting with open arms to welcome a new standard-bearer, pure and noble, better than the best of themselves. A hero emerged in the form of a charismatic horse, as burning red as a spark sprung from the torch of a god. Within his body beat a titanic heart, nearly three times the size of the average Thoroughbred's. His name was Secretariat.

The second Saturday in June dawned hot and sultry, the first day of the year to reach 90-plus degrees. In anticipation of heavy demand, the Long Island Railway had added extra cars to its Penn Station-Belmont run. I was soon seated cheek-by-jowl amongst every definition of racing's demographic in a sauna on wheels, all stoked with the hope that the 25-year Triple Crown drought would be brought to an end.

At Belmont, the heat and humidity were stifling, and every available shady spot was soon snatched. In defiance of the fire laws, fans were standing on the stairways and in the aisles, anyplace they could to catch a glimpse of the horse which had captured the country's imagination for the past five weeks. I found a few spare inches in the grandstand and guarded my ground.

The hour before post-time was a clinic in anxiety management. I wanted Secretariat to win so badly, I would have gladly traded years off my life to seal the deal. The noise from the crowd was unrelenting and rose to a crescendo when the familiar blue-and-white checkered colors of Meadow Stables appeared on the track. Secretariat's coat caught the late afternoon light and shone like burnished copper. His neck was bowed, and he walked with a demeanor which was regal in its calmness. I can recall nothing about the four other competitors. My eyes were riveted on that piece of equine perfection which carried 126 pounds and 25 years of hope on its back.

The crowd cheered, shouted, and clapped, the reverberations from the excitement so high, the air seemed to sing. Secretariat was a model of deportment throughout the playing of the traditional “Sidewalks of New York,” the announcer's introductions, and the uproarious reception from the multitude. His composure was so restrained, that it was only in the warm-up that one caught a glimpse of the enormous power of his underlying musculature.

In watching countless replays of Secretariat's Belmont, I have felt like a pilgrim returning to holy ground. What remains is a recollection of an event so transcendent that it has illuminated my life and lit my inner world for 50 years.

I will never forget the angst of watching what many considered to be a premature move by Ron Turcotte on the first turn, and the heart-cracking fear that the long sweep of Belmont's stretch would sap Secretariat's last ounce of strength. I cannot hear a replay of TV announcer Chic Anderson's classic call of “Secretariat is widening now, he is moving like a tremendous machine,” without reliving the fervor of the crowd, which recognized that they were present at that rarest of alignments–when greatness gives birth to legend; the terror that the giant grandstand would not withstand the seismic shaking of thousands of stomping feet; and the euphoria that motivated a wall of humans to rise in unison to applaud a horse that, for one moment in time, became the embodiment of as much beauty as one could ever hope to see in this world. With tears streaming as I watched Secretariat's incredible lead continue to lengthen and Ron Turcotte steal a backward glance at history, I experienced an elation so magnificent that I cannot manufacture the words to describe it.

Secretariat had run the fastest Belmont on record, shattering the old mark by an amazing 2 3/5 seconds, and he had broken the world record for 1 1/2 miles. His winning margin was a mind-boggling 31 lengths. But it was not merely a matter of time and distance. For two minutes and 24 seconds on June 9, 1973, Secretariat was the culmination of the best of his breed and the consummate expression of the highest part of ourselves. He was everything that his Maker and nature had intended. The world was not perfect that day. But he was. Fifty years later, the flame of that memory endures. His name is Secretariat

reductio ad absurdum
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote diomed Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Jul 2023 at 9:04pm
Secretartiat's record was 21 races: 16 wins; 3 seconds; 1 third; 1 fourth

WIKI shows Secretariat's Preakness time as 1:53.00.

This from the United States section of The Bloodstock Breeders' Annual Review 1973
"A controversy promptly arose over the time of the race [Preakness].  It had been clocked electronically as 1:55.0, one second slower than Cananero's 1971 record.  But the official track clocker had timed the race manually in 1:54.4 and two clockers from Daily Racing Form, standing in separate locations, times it identically in 1:53.4, which would have been a new record.
The Pimlico Stewards, after an enquiry, decided to discard the electronic time and accept the track clocker's manual time [1:54.4].  Mrs Tweedy appealed to the Maryland Racing Commission to accept the Daily Racing Form time  [1:53.4] as official, but the Commission rejected the appeal on the grounds that no issue existed over which it had juristiction to reverse the Steward's ruling."

39 years after the Preakness they came up with a time of 1:53.00 that was lower than the four times recorded on the day of the race (1:55.0; 1:54.4; 1:53.4: 1:53.4).


Secretariat's five defeats
04/07/72 - Aqueduct - Maiden Purse - 4th.  This was Secretariat's first race and I have no information but this "he had been fouled at the start".

14/10/72 - Belmont - Champagne Stakes - 2nd.  Secretariat disqualified for bumping around the turn.

21/04/73 - Aqueduct - Wood Memorial - 3rd to Angle Light and Sham.  "Secretariat had contracted a minor illness in the weeks before the Wood; an abscess was found under his lip hours before the race."

04/08/73 - Whitney Stakes - Saratoga - 2nd to Onion (a 4yo).  "The four-year-old Onion *, previously unknown and later undistinguished, led all the way under a clever ride by Jacinto Vasquez, who kept Secretariat pinned in the slightly deeper going along the rail and rode his rival as close as the Stewards and the film patrol would allow,  The Meadow three-year old got to within a head of Onion a furlong from the finish, but weakened and lost by a length."

29/9/73 - Belmont - Woodward Stakes - 2nd to Prove Out (a 4-y-o).  "In the Woodward Stakes, Secretariat ran perhaps his strangest race.  He chased the pace of the previously unknown Prove Out for five furlongs, then took command and opened a margin of 1 1/2 lengths.  However, he gradually weakened over the sloppy track and finished second by 4 1/2 lengths.  Prove Out later won the Jockey Club Gold Cup to demonstrate his Woodward victory was no fluke. ... Oddly, Prove Out, like the Whitney winner Onion, was ridden by Jacinto Vasquez, trained by H. Allen Jerkens and owned by Hobeau Farm."

In the Marlboro Cup 15/09/73 Secretariat won and Onion * was 4th, beaten 12 lengths.


"But, despite his [Secretariat's] undoubted talents, he turned in some dull races that clashed with his ranking as "Horse of the Century".
Excuses were found for the first two of his 1973 losses.
His third-place finish in the Wood Memorial was blamed on a poor training effort, when he was bothered during a work-out by a loose horse, and his Whitney Stakes second on his impending illness.
It was less easy, though, to explain away his being passed by Prove Out in the Woodward Stakes, although the latter was to prove himself a top performer by winning the Jockey Club Gold Cup as well."


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote acacia alba Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Nov 2023 at 7:49pm
animals before people.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote diomed Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Nov 2023 at 2:26am
I read that the track at Belmont was "skimmed" but did not understand the term.

This week I wa reading Sods I Have Cut On The Turf (1961) by English Jockey and trainer Jack Leach. 
On page 139 he says "The time factor has become of such importance in America that it is a menace to the horses.  The tracks like to advertise that records are held by them, and are inclined to scrape off and reduce the cushion of dirt on the track which should be at least three inches, to two and a half or less. When the track is firm underneath this causes a lot of horses to jar themselves badly and sometimes to break down."

1973 Belmont Stakes
(1) Secretariat set a record time 2:24.00 (previous record 2:26 3/5 in 1957)
(2) Sham, who was 2nd by 2 1/2 lengths to Secretariat in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes suffered a fractured right cannonbone in the Belmont that ended his racing career.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Carioca Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Nov 2023 at 12:56pm
1957 , that's the same year our great 3 y/o Tulloch ran 2-26-90 in winning the Caulfield Cup of 1 1/2 mile diomed , hardly a struck match between them . StarStarStar
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Carioca Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Nov 2023 at 12:58pm
Of course I mean the old course record Secretariat broke . Confused
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote diomed Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Nov 2023 at 10:54pm
1957 , that's the same year our great 3 y/o Tulloch ran 2-26-90 in winning the Caulfield Cup of 1 1/2 mile diomed , hardly a struck match between them.
With Tulloch beginning from a standing start and the American horse at full speed before he hit the timing beam for the American 'start'.

While I am putting my big ?before anything American here is another quote from the book. 
I once read in an American racing paper that such-and-such a horse ran a mile and a quarter at Belmont Park in a time which, to quote the writer "is a world record unless you believe times taken in California"
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