Jason FrakesLouisville Courier Journal
Before Secretariat would win the Triple Crown and go on to become the greatest thoroughbred known to man, Laffit Pincay Jr. believed he would be the winning jockey in the 1973 Kentucky Derby.
Two weeks before the Kentucky Derby, Pincay had ridden Sham to a second-place finish in the Wood Memorial, finishing 4 lengths ahead of third-place Secretariat.
Like the rest of the world, Pincay had no clue Secretariat had an abscess — an infection at the base of a tooth — that affected his performance in the Wood. Pincay simply knew Secretariat’s sire, Bold Ruler, wasn’t adept at long-distance races.
Bold Ruler “ran into walls beyond a mile,” Sports Illustrated’s William Nack once wrote.
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“The talk was that Bold Rulers could not go a mile and a quarter (the Kentucky Derby distance),” Pincay, now 76 years old, said last week from his home in San Gabriel, California. “I thought he might not go the distance, so I thought I had a good, good chance at winning that race.
“But you saw what happened.”
What happened was a five-week run through the Triple Crown races that has stood the test of time for 50 years.
Secretariat’s times in all three are still race records:
Kentucky Derby: 1 minute, 59 2/5 seconds for 1 ¼ miles.
Preakness Stakes: 1:53 for 1 3/16 miles.
Belmont Stakes: 2:24 for 1 ½ miles.
Will they ever be broken? Seattle Slew (1977), Affirmed (1978), American Pharoah (2015) and Justify (2018) matched Secretariat as Triple Crown winners but couldn’t compete with his times.
"I can’t compare Secretariat with any other horse I rode or saw,” Secretariat jockey Ron Turcotte said. “I don't think we’ll see another one."
'Nobody's going to break that record'
Secretariat’s Triple Crown run began with a 2 1/2-length victory over Sham in the Kentucky Derby. In the 50 years since, only Monarchos has won the Derby with a time of less than 2 minutes, clocking 1:59.97 in 2001.
Secretariat won the Preakness by 2 ½ lengths over Sham. The time originally was recorded as 1:54 2/5 but was changed to 1:53 by the Maryland Racing Commission in 2012 using digital technology. Swiss Skydiver’s winning time of 1:53.28 in 2020 is the fastest since 1973, though it should be noted that Preakness was contested in October instead of May because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Secretariat’s Triple Crown finale was the most memorable, a 31-length romp of Twice A Prince in the Belmont.
“A stunning performance that made mockery of anything any other horse ever did,” Dave Kindred wrote after the race for The Courier Journal.
The final time of 2:24 remains the North American record for a 1 ½-mile race on dirt. Among Belmont winners since then, Easy Goer (1989) and A.P. Indy (1992) came the closest with times of 2:26.
“Believe me, nobody’s going to break that record,” Pincay said. ““I saw the horse open up, open up, open up. I just couldn’t believe he won so easy. He outran everybody. I said, ‘This is the best horse I ever saw.’”
Fifty years later, Pincay still believes it.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “He was one of a kind.”
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Trying to catch Secretariat
Today’s top trainers are in awe of what Secretariat accomplished but haven’t given up on breaking his records.
Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher has won two Kentucky Derbys and four Belmonts and said varying track conditions always allow for the possibility of record times.
“Track records a lot of times are set because of fast tracks, but for (Secretariat) to do it on the number of different surfaces he did it on and the impressive fashion he did … not very often do you see one stand the test of a half-century,” Pletcher said.
Hall of Famer Bill Mott won the 2010 Belmont and 2019 Kentucky Derby and remembers watching — at the age of 19 — Secretariat win the Belmont.
“I was watching him in the post parade and said, ‘Boy, he’s not warming up that good. I don’t know if he’s going to run,’” Mott said. “That’s how smart I was.”
Mott said he doesn’t doubt Secretariat’s greatness but noted comparing horses from different eras gets complicated.
He mentioned Spectacular Bid, who won the 1979 Kentucky Derby and Preakness before finishing third in the Belmont. His time of 1:57 4/5 in the 1980 Strub Stakes at Santa Anita Park remains the North American record for a 1 ¼-mile dirt race.
“Unless (Secretariat) runs against Spectacular Bid, how are you going to measure him against Spectacular Bid?” Mott said. “I think some people believe Spectacular Bid was as good as they’ve ever seen.”
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The heart of a champion
The answer to Secretariat’s greatness may well lie in his heart.
After a battle with laminitis — a painful hoof condition — Secretariat was euthanized in 1989 at the age of 19.
Dr. Thomas Swerczek, a professor of veterinary science at the University of Kentucky, performed the necropsy. Swerczek told Sports Illustrated that Secretariat’s heart was abnormally large. He estimated it was about 22 pounds.
“We were all shocked,” Swerczek said. “I've seen and done thousands of autopsies on horses, and nothing I’d ever seen compared to it. Theheartof the average horse weighs about nine pounds. This was almost twice the average size and a third larger than any equineheartI’d ever seen.
“And it wasn’t pathologically enlarged. All the chambers and the valves were normal. It was just larger. I think it told us why he was able to do what he did.”
Pincay said he wasn’t surprised when he learned of Secretariat’s large heart.
“That probably was a factor for him to be able to keep on going and not getting tired,” Pincay said. “He could pump a lot of blood and a lot oxygen, more than everybody else.”
Pletcher, Mott and their colleagues will continue their search for the next Secretariat.
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Pletcher has two of the top contenders in this year’s Kentucky Derby in Forte and Tapit Trice, two of the nine distant relatives of Secretariat running in the 149th Derby. Mott trains long shot Rocket Can.
Who knows whether one of them will approach Secretariat’s records, but Mott said it will take more than just heart.
“The heart is part of the package,” Mott said. “There are so many other things. You have to have good legs, the right mechanics to put it all together like Secretariat did.”
Jason Frakes: 502-582-4046; jfrakes@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @KentuckyDerbyCJ. Brooks Holton contributed to this story.
