Fifty Years After Secretariat’s Triple Crown, The Jockeys Who He Defeated Remember
“I’ve never seen a horse make a run like that in the first turn and still have something left at the end to beat everybody. I haven’t seen it since.”
By Arthur R. George
Fifty years after Secretariat’s 1973 sweep of the Triple Crown of American horseracing, jockeys who were on the mounts defeated by “Big Red” are reflecting upon his majesty. They had held constant or even led ahead of him, in the stirrups atop their own steaming mounts, and then watched helplessly as Secretariat stormed ahead.
Their phrases linger: “I just couldn’t believe it.” “You saw the time.” “You saw what happened.” “…He was gone. And that was the end of that.”
Secretariat’s Triple Crown victory was the first in twenty-five years, since Citation in 1948, a generation before. Of all the horses that have ever run in the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, or the Belmont, the three races of the Triple Crown, in the past fifty years or earlier, none have ever been faster. In 2023, there will not be a Triple Crown winner, as different horses already have won the Derby and the Preakness, with the Belmont scheduled for June 10.
PASSING THE FIELD AT THE KENTUCKY DERBY
In the 1973 Derby, there were doubts that Secretariat could handle the 1–1/4 mile course. His sire, Bold Ruler, was a winning horse, but not known for stamina in long courses. “Big horse stamina” is sometimes handed down through the mother’s lineage, rather than directly from the father. Both Secretariat and Sham, the second-place horse in the Derby and the Preakness, were born from different mares that had been sired by the same stallion, one of the top distance runners in history, Princequillo of Claiborne Farms.
Ron Turcotte, Secretariat’s jockey, the previous year had won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes on Riva Ridge, the first and third legs of the Triple Crown. He was also on Secretariat for eight of the nine wins leading to the 1972 Horse of the Year title, the first two-year-old granted that honor since 1936. He knew Secretariat well, valued the Princequillo sturdiness, and was confident that his horse could run any distance.
As the Derby went off, Turcotte let other horses break out of the starting gate, in part because he knew it took time for Secretariat to engage his rear legs and hindquarters, reported Larry Shulman of BloodHorse magazine. Turcotte avoided any trouble from horses fighting for early position, and asked nothing for the first quarter mile.
Secretariat lagged behind most of the field before moving up. As Secretariat trailed, jockey Laffit Pincay on Sham was following a front runner, Shecky Greene under jockey Larry Adams, mindful of keeping distance in front of Secretariat.
Pincay, now 76 years old, told writer Mike Kane that he had gone out earlier than he had planned, staying with Shecky Greene as Larry Adams fought to hold the inside rail position. Pincay said that if Shecky Greene bolted, “he’s going to take me with him. So I kind of put pressure on him, to keep him inside.
“I tell you I was going beside him, but I was going very easily. My horse was doing it so easily, even though he was fighting there. As soon as I kind of nudged my horse to go by him a little bit and keep him inside, my horse just went on. He was doing it very easily, so I didn’t feel like he was taking a lot from him. At the head of the stretch, when I asked him, he just responded again. He was really reaching out.”
In front with less than a quarter mile remaining, Pincay believed he was on his way to his first Derby win. The situation changed quickly.
“It surprised me when I saw Secretariat right beside me and he started going by me,” Pincay said. “I just couldn’t believe it. As hard as my horse was trying, he was still going by me very easily.”
Turcotte tapped Secretariat twice to take the lead but otherwise did not have to touch him, hand-riding his horse to the finish line. Both Secretariat and Sham broke the course record of 2:00 set by Northern Dancer in 1964. Secretariat was ahead by two-and-a-half lengths in 1:59.40. Sham was second at 1:59.80. Secretariat’s winning time still stands as the Derby best.
Secretariat covered the final quarter mile in 23 seconds: the fastest Derby run ended with the fastest final quarter in the history of the race. The horse had run every quarter mile faster than the previous one: from 25 1/5 seconds to 24, then 23 4⁄5, then 23 2⁄5, and finally 23 flat. Rather than slowing down as he approached the finish line, he had been accelerating.
“You saw the time,” Pincay said. “These two horses broke the track record. Only Secretariat was better.”
PLANNING FOR THE PREAKNESS
Going to the next leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Pincay believed Sham could be victorious in another meeting with Secretariat. Sham had already beaten Secretariat once the previous year when they raced as two-year-olds. Sham had also finished second ahead of third-place Secretariat in the 1973 Wood Memorial, two weeks prior to the Derby.
“That’s why going to Baltimore, I thought that if I could save a little bit for in the stretch, I could beat him,” Pincay said. The Preakness is a shorter course than the Derby. “I thought probably that less distance would benefit my horse. That is what I went into the race thinking, that a shorter distance would be better.
“Well, you saw what happened.”
Pincay’s strategy was to save Sham for a late run to the finish line. Secretariat came out of the starting gate last. He had the habit of lazing against the back of the starting gate, as if he was sunbathing in the Caribbean one tout phrased it, but moved up on the pack.
“Going to the first turn, I was just going to try to lay second or third and save as much as I could for the stretch,” Pincay said. “Secretariat moved prematurely in the first turn, really fast. When I saw that, I liked it even more, because you don’t see horses do that. You don’t see horses make a move like that in the first turn and last.”
Secretariat’s owner Penny Chenery recalled in a video documentary that her horse started his advance on his own initiative, with a sudden leap of an astonishing burst of speed, as if to say, “Okay, I’ll take over now.”
Secretariat’s run at the first turn was “suicidal,” Pincay told James Burns of England’s Racing Post e-newspaper, “and I thought for sure I’d beat him coming down the stretch and he’d get tired, but he kept going.”
“I’ve never seen a horse make a run like that in the first turn and still have something left at the end to beat everybody. I haven’t seen it since.”
Pincay recounted his plan to Mike Kane: “So, I just said, ‘well, I’m just gonna lay close to him at the head of the stretch I’ll get him.’ At the head of the stretch, when I asked my horse, he responded. I could feel he was trying, but he just couldn’t get to Secretariat. That’s the type of horse he was, that he could do something like that in the first turn and still have enough to win the race. That was a fantastic race for him.”
Pincay vigorously put a whip onto Sham through the home stretch, while Turcotte again simply stayed on the reins to guide Secretariat home. “Down the lane I never asked him to run,” Turcotte told the Associated Press. “He just galloped to the wire very easily.”
Jockey Don Brumfield, now 84, rode Our Native to third place in both the Derby and the Preakness. In both races, 2–1/2 and then eight lengths separated the win, place, and show positions. Secretariat’s winning time of 1:53, established with certainty after years of dispute over timing clock malfunctions, remains a course record.
For a moment Brumfield had kept pace with Turcotte, vividly detailing to writer Mike Kane how the race unfolded. “I remember going up there and going to the first turn I was laying right alongside Secretariat. And Ronnie just moved his hands on him and he was gone. And that was the end of that.
“As far as catching him or anything, I didn’t have any idea of doing that. I would have liked to, but he was just too much for everybody in the race.”
THIRTY-ONE LENGTHS AHEAD IN THE BELMONT
In the Belmont Stakes, Sham was sweating profusely as the horses were led to the starting gate; observers questioned whether there was something wrong, or nervous apprehension in facing Secretariat once again after two close defeats. Pincay had been ordered by Sham’s trainer to stay with Secretariat from the start. The strategy held through the first turn and into the backstretch as Secretariat and Sham led the field, and then both pulled away by a half-dozen lengths with Sham leading at several points.
Again on pace to set a race record, the pair was approximately a dozen lengths ahead of the pack, when Secretariat began to pull away even more. “We were going half a mile in 45 seconds, which you never see at Belmont, and he still finished strongly at the end,” Pincay told James Burns of the Racing Post. “You’ve never seen that before or since.”
As Secretariat charged to take an astounding and insurmountable lead of 31 lengths, Pincay eased off Sham, yielding to a last-place finish. Sham was found later to have sustained a hairline fracture in a leg bone, perhaps accumulated in striving to the record-breaking paces of the races. The injury was surgically repaired, but Sham never raced again, and retired for the next twenty years to a life as a breeding stallion.
In a history compiled by the New York Racing Association, Turcotte wrote that he had never felt such strength under him as he did that day. In the stands, Secretariat’s trainer feared that the pace was crazy, Turcotte wrote, “But I am the one on the horse. I knew he was well within himself. He was doing everything easily. His stride was beautiful. His breathing was good. Everything was going to my liking. My job, as I saw it, was to be a good passenger and stay out of his way. The only encouragement I gave him was to occasionally whisper in his ear. ‘Easy boy,’ I would tell him.
“I knew we were putting Sham and the rest far behind us with Secretariat’s long, loping strides. I knew he was going to have no trouble getting the mile and a half. I peeked and the other horses must have been 15–20 lengths behind.
“Now, the only race was against the clock.” After the timekeeping controversy in the Preakness, Turcotte wanted Secretariat to set a record that would hold for a long time. “With 70 yards to go, I chirped to him to make sure he did not lose focus. He responded by finding still another gear.”
Turcotte told The Sport, a racing e-publication, that he just let Secretariat run. “You just try to sit still, as if he was running alone, you know, like he’s running in the field or running alone with nothing on him,” Turcotte said. “Horses always run better free.”
The final result had Secretariat 31 lengths ahead of the next horse, the largest margin of victory in Belmont history. Turcotte looked to his left at the course clock as he crossed the finish line. Even he was astonished at the winning time of 2:24:00, another record that still stands. No other horse in the succeeding fifty years, with all the scientific improvements in training, feeding, and conditioning, has approached closer than within two seconds of that time.
PICKING A FAVORITE
Sham was one of Pincay’s favorite horses in the jockey’s four decade career among 9,530 winners. Pincay told James Burns that Sham would have been a champion in any other year. Had Sham not been matched against the greatness of Secretariat as they both competed as three-year-olds in the same year, some theorize that Sham would have been the horse for the ages. Some assert that Sham’s challenges inspired Secretariat’s performances. Erasing Secretariat from the front position still has Sham eight lengths ahead of Our Native in the Derby and Preakness.
Pincay became the principal rider of 1978 Triple Crown winner Affirmed in that horse’s later campaigns, loved Affirmed for winning in many meetings, but said that Affirmed at his Derby peak would have finished third behind Secretariat and Sham. “That’s how much I thought of Sham.” Affirmed’s Derby and Preakness times were slower than Secretariat and Sham had clocked five years earlier. For all that, Pincay acknowledged that Sham would have had to have been a better horse to defeat Secretariat.
Pincay told Burns that Secretariat was the best horse he had ever seen, as he rode apace, alongside and then behind in disbelief. “I’ve never seen anything come close to Secretariat, and, to me, he’s the best horse who ever lived. He went to the post perfect, like he knew what he was doing. I’m glad I got to ride against him…I can’t fault him in any way.”
After both horses died, their hearts were weighed in autopsies. Secretariat was at 22 pounds; Sham 18 pounds; the heart of an average horse is about nine pounds, Dr. Thomas Swerczek performed the autopsy on Secretariat and found his heart was almost twice the average size, and a third larger than any equine heart the doctor had ever seen among thousands of autopsies. It was not pathologically enlarged, just larger. “He could turn air to oxygen much faster than another horse could,” Turcotte theorized.
Turcotte told Burns he is still waiting to see a horse as good. Brumfield, the jockey on the third-place Our Native in the Derby and Preakness, rode for 35 years, had a Hall of Fame career, won the 1966 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes on Kauai King, and more than 4,500 first place finishes. He agreed that Secretariat was the best of the horses he competed against and had seen in his lifetime. “None better. He was the best.”
