Those were the days!! You could watch the best horse of all time run a race 1 minute, the next minute you're watching Olga Korbut doing her thing on the Balance Beam and then to top it all off you could watch Evel Knievel jump over a few dozen buses! Something for everybody! The Wide World of Sports!!!
It’s amazing what an impact he had on people especially the children. Every time I watch secretariat I get goosebumps in wow. He single handedly lifted up america.
When he takes the lead its amazing, its like he puts into a gear that none of the other horses have. The fans were out to see something special and they saw it.
Love the call when Secretariat starts to take the lead...there he goes there he goes and the crowd erupts, that’s great! To watch him run it’s as if God whispered into his ear... ok boy show em what you got, make me proud! What a horse!!!
Maple said riding him was like a dream, interesting hearing from both jockeys. Arcaro rode Bold Ruler for a time, and obviously Ronnie rode Red. Cool dynamic
22lb heart he ran with a Hendrick engine while the others were running a 4 cylinder. Amazing animal born with a big heart and spirit to match but the vet said it was not an abnormal defect at all just a gift from god. I watched all three of his triple crown races when I was 18 and still love to watch the Belmont race. RIP BIG RED! Oh yeah a normal horse heart is around 8.5lbs Secretariat 22lbs. We will never see another like him.
Nostrils puffing steam grabbing the dirt with those mighty hooves. Theres never been a horse like him. He could pass the best thoroughbred horses in the world like they were ponies . He ran those races all by himself of his own will with no whip. Belmont still makes me wet eyed !
All of the trainers of the 1970s all say (behind closed doors) that he was juiced to the gills. They just didn't have good enough testing back then. Look up "enlarged heart and steroid users". Of course the believers have already made up their minds. Just like everything else these days. Not even video proof or admission would get anyone to change their minds.
I think Seattle Slew would have beaten Secretariat in one of the Kentucky Derby or Preakness, as they were shorter races, but I think Secretariat would take Slew in the Belmont -- just too much easy power.
The steam shooting from his nose coming around that last turn and in the stretch is one of the most intimidating spectacles in sports history. Gives me chills watching it to the point I want to scream!
It does me too, I get goosebumps, chills watching him just grap another gear and take off. Kennedy road is like what the hell. I though I was doing great.
Tough to argue against the belief that at this point in his career, Secretariat was utterly unbeatable. This race is a testament to Big Red's enduring greatness. Secretariat's move at the 2:03 mark is historic in its grace and power. We shan't see his like again.
@@question_it_701 he won a lot more than 3 races, against better horses than Man O'War ever faced (Sham, Linda's Chief, Key to the Mint, Angle Light, Twice a Prince and Forego all would have obliterated the likes of Upset and Hoodwink). Trolls gonna troll, so be elsewhere.
@@evansquilt So you're throwing out some stats. Yet...you cry like like a nipple fed liberal when I point out he lost 25% of his races. LOL. You should go punch your dad in the gut for raising such a weenie liberal troll.
HE WAS SENT TO US WITH HEAVENS SPEED...LIKE NO OTHER RACE HORSE IN KNOWN HISTORY. SECRETARIAT WILL ALWAYS BE MY FAVORITE ATHLETE 💓❤...GOD BLESS HIM & EVERYONE ENVOLVED WITH RAISING, CARING FOR HIM, & BRINGING HIM TO THE RACES...SO WE COULD ENJOY A TASTE OF ❤ TRUE EXCELLANCES...AND ROYAL PEDIGREE . I ALWAYS ENJOY WATCHING SECRETARIAT FLY LIKE THE WIND PASSING UP THE OTHER RACE 🐎 HORSES 🏇...HIS RACES ALWAYS CHEER ME UP...THANKS FOR THESE EPIC SECRETARIAT RACES. 💘LOVE&PRAYERS, SHIRL IN S.C.
"The crowd is standing and they're cheering because this is his LAST race!!! He's into the stretch in a blaze of GLORY!!! Secretariat, Ladies and Gentleman...He all YOURS!!!!" You can't top that IMO. Eddie Maple deputized for Ronnie Turcotte who had a 5 day riding suspension. Today, think Turcotte would have had an exception made for Secretariat's last race??? I sorta think so.
It's like Secretariat had some sort of switch inside him. He just cruises along until it's time...and then he flips the switch and goes into high gear.
Secretariat at full speed thundering down the stretch in a rage, with nostrils exhaling mist in the darkness at Woodbine, is at once both terrifying and astonishing
Yea, you sound like me. And, even though I think Man O' War is the best, I never think of him at 4, running anywhere, but I do think how would Secretariat have run in Europe. It's a crime such a horse with such ability was retired at 3.
@@challloyd215 Well, yes, money, but money in the sense of debts that needed to be paid. Penny Tweedy would have preferred to campaign Secretariat at 4, as she had Riva Ridge, and as Meadow Stable had done with its prior stars. Her father's death trapped her into syndicating the colt. Meadow Stable faced heavy estate taxes following the death of Christopher Chenery Jan. 3, 1973. Penny sold off a lot of bloodstock, and was advised to syndicate 1972 HOY Secretariat, who had not yet made his 3-yr-old debut, because his value would go down if he had a poor 3-yr-old season. The syndication deal required him to be retired by mid November 1973. If Christopher had died a year earlier -- or if Riva Ridge had not had a championship 2-year-old campaign in 1972 and saved the financially struggling Meadow Stable -- a still-unraced Secretariat would very likely have been sold off outright, to race under other silks.
Secretariat had everything that's why he was the real deal. Very tough to beat cause he was a beast that has some huge lungs n heart n he was born to run.
There is in some of these races I noticed a point where a competing horse all of the sudden just breaks, loses it's will, and gives up against Secretariat. Saw the same happen to Sham at the Belmont. Just too much Secretariat.
There have probably been more athletic horses in the past, there will likely be a better horse in the future. But no man has seen a horse as athletic and magnificent as Secretariat, in the last 300 years.
Yes, both Kennedy Road and Sham were very capable horses, but could not match the exceptionally high cruising speed of Secretariat who could run very fast without tiring himself at all. But then again no other horse in history could either, not Man O War, not Ribot, not Phar Lap, not Frankel.
That was an interesting choice of race. He had just gotten handled pretty easy by Phone out at Belmont. And was beaten by Onion as well in the Whitney. So I think the thinking was he couldn't afford any more defeats. It would effect his stud fees. Some of the experts claim he was avoiding Forego, who was turning into the monster he would be for the next 4 years by this stage of 73. A turf race in Canada..oh well.. he handled that surface quite well.
Avoiding Forego? After the Deby where Forego finished 4th it was Forego's Owner and Trainer who wanted no part of Big Red. Forego did not turn into the great horse he was until he started racing as a 4 year old.
@@michaelrichardson6051 Forego was gelded after the Derby. Despite running the fastest final quarter in that race. It was obvious that he was just to big for his age. He was all over the track that day. And was just a handful to handle. But by the time August had come around, and him destroying older horses in the Jerome, And Brooklyn Handicap... Secretariat and Forego we're on a collision course in the Suburban for a rematch. Secretariat mysteriously went to Canada instead. Speculation of course, but many felt that the Secretariat conections wanted nothing to do with that budding 17.5 hand monster who finally figured out how to race. Again another loss after the crown would have diminished his stud fees.. that was the buzz in those days anyway. Secretariat went to the Breeders Barn. And Forego went on to be one of the great Handicap horses in History.
@@davidbracher8322 the "fastest final quarter" was only good enough for 4th place against Secretariat who was 1st horse to run and win the Derby under 2 minutes. To think a horse like Secretariat would duck anyother horse with his records on dirt and grass is absurd. The field in the Marlboro Cup in September of 1973 was probably the best field of horses ever in a Stakes race and he toyed with them. Then on grass, 1st time he ran on it, he beat the horse who until then was the best Turf horse around, Ten Tam and set a record doing it.
@@michaelrichardson6051 I was mearly conveying the sentiment of the times. And honestly I don't know what to make of Secretariat and the adulation he receives. There certainly are much faster horses throughout history. And far more accomplished as well. But those names are far less known than Secretariat. And I see these videos all the time. I saw Forego set a track record at 1 3/8ths with a 140 lbs on his back when I was a youngster. Incredible! But beyond that, to compare Secretariat to the likes of Dr Fager Swaps or Spectacular Bid is ludicrous in my opinion. The mathematics don't lie.. carry on. Didn't mean to take it this far.. peace.
@@davidbracher8322 Secretariat was retired when he was only 3, which is like a teenanger in human terms. Horses only start to mature when they get to be 4, 5, and 6. That is when Forego started carrying all that weight. As a 3 years old he won 2 Handicap races while Secretariat was winnng the Triple Crown at times that are still records today, 49 years later. And you want to compare Spectacular Bid to him? He was not as big as Forego but at 16 and a half hands and 1175 lbs as a 3 year old if he was allowed to race as long as Forego God only knows how many more records he would have set . But since he could stand at stud and Forego could not it made business sense to retire him . Only reason. So long, best of luck.
And there are those who to this day believe the real reason Secretariat went to Canada for the Canadian International was to avoid facing Prove Out (who beat Sec in Sec's final dirt start) in the Jockey Club Gold Cup when Prove Out was an absolute monster, going two miles in 3:20 with only Kelso ever having gone faster at that distance.
They can believe what they want but the connections actually wanted to see how Secretariat would handle a switch to turf which is why they raced him in the Man O War prior to this race. It was in fact during a pause of gentle acclimatising to turf that Secretariat was thrown in as a non match fit competitor against Prove Out, still sending in a more than respectively 2:26 3/5 unprepared, 2 3/5 off his best. His best being more than enough to defeat Prove Out (2nd fast dirt 1.5 miles all time) or in fact any other horse you could care to think of over 1.5 miles including Kelso.
Yes, there are many Secretariat detractors out there who say that they ducked Prove Out. However, in an article published in the New York Times PRIOR to the Woodward, it was reported that Secretariat would be pointed toward turf races.
@@richd3044 That is true, as otherwise, Sec would have more likely been pointed for the Washington DC International at Laurel when THAT was THE big race in the fall.
Oh, please. Prove Out got a lucky break because Lucien Laurin put Secretariat in as a last minute replacement for Riva Ridge because of the track condition. Prove Out was like Onion, not anything remotely a monster.
I think Seattle Slew would have beaten Secretariat in one of the Kentucky Derby or Preakness, as they were shorter races, but I think Secretariat would take Slew in the Belmont -- just too much easy power.