The Kentucky Derby Museum is featuring “Secretariat: America’s Horse,” a new exhibit that uses technology to show how his physique helped make him such a standout. He became a pop culture phenomenon, appearing on the covers of Time and Newsweek while helping distract a nation dragged down by Watergate and the Vietnam War.Īnd on the 50th anniversary of his history-making triumph, Secretariat is being given another round of celebration. Secretariat’s popularity exploded in the three weeks leading up to the Belmont. It wasn’t until 2012, at owner Penny Chenery’s request, that the Maryland Racing Commission reviewed video and revised his time to 1:53, another track record. The Pimlico track’s timing device showed Secretariat clocked 1:55 for 1 3/16 miles, but it had malfunctioned. He just galloped to the wire very easily.” A normal horse you could make one or two,” Turcotte told The Associated Press by phone from his home in Canada. “I could make five, six moves with him in a race. They won by 2 1/2 lengths over Sham, who had also finished second in the Derby. Jockey Ron Turcotte made a split-second decision in the first turn to swing Big Red to the outside in a rush to the front. Two weeks later, Secretariat broke last out of the starting gate in the Preakness. Horse deaths cast shadow as Triple Crown shifts to Preakness “It says he was beautifully prepared for each of those races, and his competition was not as good as he was,” said Dave Johnson, track announcer for the 1973 Belmont in which Secretariat won by an astounding 31 lengths.

Secretariat won the Derby, Preakness and Belmont in record times that still stand, and ended a 25-year Triple Crown drought. “I still ask strangers, ‘Who’s the best horse you ever heard of?’ and I’m hoping they say Pharoah. “He’s still the bar to me,” said Bob Baffert, who trained Triple Crown winners American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018. His name recognition, even among those who don’t follow sports, is still strong 34 years after his death, and eight of his descendants will run in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, including early 3-1 favorite Forte.

The colt nicknamed Big Red remains the heartbeat of an industry that has yet to see such dominance on and off the track replicated. Secretariat had an unusually large heart, an engine that propelled him to a Triple Crown sweep 50 years ago.

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