Revisiting Secretariat's Triple Crown
Jun 4, 2014 7:46:16 GMT -5
Post by Evelyn on Jun 4, 2014 7:46:16 GMT -5
Revisiting Secretariat's Triple Crown
By Jon White
Xpressbet
With California Chrome’s bid for Triple Crown immortality coming up on June 7, this seems like a good time to reflect on Secretariat’s Triple Crown sweep in 1973.
It now has been 36 years since Affirmed swept the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes. It is the Triple Crown’s longest drought.
Affirmed was one of three Triple Crown winners in the glorious 1970s. Secretariat in 1973 and Seattle Slew in 1977 also accomplished the rare and extremely difficult feat.
There was a 25-year Triple Crown drought between Citation in 1948 and Secretariat in 1973. By the time Secretariat had come along, many were convinced that we would never see another Triple Crown winner.
“The foal crops are so much larger now than when Citation was racing,” had become a common explanation as to why the Triple Crown had become unattainable in the 1960s and 1970s.
Between Citation and Secretariat, seven horses were unable to complete a Triple Crown sweep after winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness:
1958 Tim Tam (finished 2nd in Belmont)
1961 Carry Back (7th in Belmont)
1964 Northern Dancer (3rd in Belmont)
1966 Kauai King (4th in Belmont)
1968 Forward Pass (2nd in Belmont)
1969 Majestic Prince (2nd in Belmont)
1971 Canonero II (4th in Belmont)
Most people agree that Native Dancer, who won the Preakness and Belmont in 1953, should have been a Triple Crown winner. He finished second to Dark Star in the Kentucky Derby, narrowly losing after being impeded early in the race. It would be Native Dancer’s lone defeat in 22 career starts.
In 1972, owner Meadow Stable, trainer Lucien Laurin and jockey Ron Turcotte collaborated with Riva Ridge to win two-thirds of the Triple Crown. The champion 2-year-old male of 1971, Riva Ridge won the Kentucky Derby by 3 1/4 lengths and Belmont by seven lengths. But Bee Bee Bee stung Riva Ridge in the Preakness. Riva Ridge finished fourth on a sloppy track, while Bee Bee Bee registered an 18-1 upset.
Early in 1973, I had come to the conclusion that Secretariat was finally going to end the long Triple Crown drought. Secretariat, who had been voted 1972 Horse of the Year as a 2-year-old, competed in the 1973 Triple Crown events for the same owner, trainer and jockey as Riva Ridge.
“Going out on a limb and living dangerously, I dare say that 1973 will be a historic year as Secretariat will become the first Triple Crown winner since the great Citation in 1948,” I wrote on March 22, 1973, in my high school newspaper.
Considering it had been a quarter of century since a Triple Crown sweep, that actually was a pretty bold prediction at the time. But I will admit that when I made that prediction, I was not aware that Sham was such a talented colt. Sham had not won the Santa Anita Derby yet.
I did not back away from my Triple Crown prediction even after Secretariat finished third behind Angle Light and Sham in the Wood Memorial two weeks before the Kentucky Derby. And even though my prediction that Secretariat would sweep the Triple Crown ultimately proved to be correct, I do feel that I was fortunate that he turned out to be great enough to defeat an exceptional colt in Sham.
Not only did Secretariat sweep the Triple Crown, he did so spectacularly. What made Secretariat’s sweep so spectacular is he won each Triple Crown race in such different fashion.
Last early among 13 starters in the Derby, Secretariat ran each quarter of a mile faster than the preceding one. He completed 1 1/4 miles in 1:59 2/5 to break the track record of 2:00 established by Northern Dancer in 1964. Thirty-six years later, Secretariat’s Derby time mark still stands.
In the Preakness, Secretariat made an electrifying move on the clubhouse turn. I have never seen a horse move so swiftly so early in a major race and still win.
To help prove just how great Secretariat was, he died in 1989, yet he still was able to break the stakes record for the Preakness in 2012. As far as I know, he is the only horse to break a stakes record 23 years after he died.
Secretariat’s original time for the Preakness was posted as 1:55. But there had been a timer malfunction.
Daily Racing Form’s highly respected clocker, Gene (Frenchy) Schwartz, and another Racing Form clocker, Frank Robinson, told the Form’s executive columnist, Joe Hirsch, that they had both timed Secretariat in 1:53 2/5, which would have broken Canonero II’s track record of 1:54.
In the Secretariat book “Big Red of Meadow Stable,” originally published shortly after Secretariat’s retirement in 1973, William Nack wrote of the final time for the 1973 Preakness: “The discrepancy would never be resolved, though the proof would be overwhelming in favor of the faster clocking. Pimlico officials, conceding that the electric timer had malfunctioned, would later accept the time belatedly reported to them by the track’s official timer, E.T. McClean, who claimed he had timed Secretariat in 1:54 2/5. Later still, behind the impetus of handicapper Steve Davidowitz, the Maryland Racing Commission held a hearing on the matter and listened to testimony presented by CBS-TV, among others, that Secretariat had beaten Canonero’s track record…But despite the time reported by two veteran Racing Form clockers, and despite the evidence presented by CBS-TV, the racing commission would finally decide to keep McClean’s time as official.”
The Racing Form took the unusual step to note for the record its disagreement with McClean’s 1:54 2/5 clocking in the official 1973 Preakness chart. In the Preakness chart, under the official race time of 1:54, it states: “Daily Racing Form Time 1:53 2/5 New Track Record.”
Canonero II’s time of 1:54 in 1971 stood as the Preakness record until Gate Dancer’s 1:53 3/5 clocking in 1984. And then, in 1985, Tank’s Prospect posted a record Preakness time of 1:53 2/5, a clocking matched by Louis Quatorze in 1996 and Curlin in 2007.
Tank’s Prospect, Louis Quatorze and Curlin shared the record for the fastest Preakness in history until the outcome of a special hearing held by the Maryland Racing Commission on June 19, 2012, at the request of Secretariat’s owner, Penny Chenery, and Tom Chuckas, president of Pimlico.
While many, including yours truly, criticized the Maryland Racing Commission for its original decision to accepted McClean’s 1:54 2/5 clocking for Secretariat, the commissioner’s hands actually were tied in 1973 by the state’s rules of racing at that time.
“State rules dictated that only the time from the official time keeper [McClean] could be used as a backup,” the Baltimore Sun’s Chris Korman wrote. “Chenery challenged the ruling later in the summer, and again in the late 1990s. That later appeal caused the commission to change its rules to allow for a time adjustment if compelling evidence could be presented.”
For more than two hours at the 2012 hearing, commissioners heard testimony, backed by modern technology, to prove Secretariat’s Preakness time actually was faster than 1:54 2/5.
“Chenery’s spokesman, Leonard Lusky, slowly built his case by calling on a former CBS director and video experts from Kentucky and Colorado to testify that the tape of the 1973 race had not been doctored and indeed reflected real time,” Korman wrote. “Digital technology allowed them to break down film frame-by-frame and create a comparison to other Preakness races.
“When Lusky finally showed three videos on the screen at once, stacked, the only immediately discernible difference was the quality of the film. The top block showed Louis Quatorze’s win in 1997, the middle showed Tank’s Prospect’s 1985 victory and the bottom Secretariat’s run. Though the productions used slightly different camera angles, the races clearly unfurled in unison.
“At the end, Secretariat hit the finish line at least a length and a half ahead of the other two -- even though Louis Quatorze and Tank’s Prospect had started the day sharing the race record of 1:53 2/5.”
The evidence was so compelling that, according to Korman, commissioners deliberated for only 10 minutes before announcing the vote had been 7-0 to change Secretariat’s official Preakness time to 1:53, a stakes record.
Korman reported that when the Maryland Racing Commission’s decision to change Secretariat’s time to a Preakness record 1:53 was announced, Chenery, 90 at the time, let out a cheer.
“People don’t like to be told something that, by implication, they got wrong,” Chenery was quoted as saying in Korman’s story. “So we had to be pretty delicate in presenting this. I just had to hope that they would listen to the evidence and not think about the precedent of overturning history. But we see it all the time in sports now. It’s accepted, with replays. It’s completely consistent with the way sports are conducted now, that we use all the analytical tools possible.”
Since 1973, Davidowitz had zealously railed against the injustice concerning Secretariat’s time for the Preakness. After the 2012 hearing, Davidowitz expressed his delight that Secretariat now is credited with having run the fastest Preakness in history.
While I, too, am extremely pleased that Secretariat finally has his Preakness record, I also am grateful that E.T. McClean originally goofed in terms of Secretariat’s Preakness time. Why? If Secretariat had been credited with a track record at Pimlico, as he should have been, chances are jockey Ron Turcotte would have taken Secretariat in hand during the last part of the Belmont. Secretariat would have coasted home to win by a much smaller margin than 31 lengths, or as the great Daily Racing Form writer Charles Hatton put it, “31 hysterical lengths.”
But even though Secretariat was far in front during the stretch run of the 1973 Belmont, Turcotte kept pumping his arms all the way to the finish. That’s because Secretariat and Turcotte were not just running against Sham and the other Belmont starters, they were running against the clock after believing (correctly, it turns out) the colt had been robbed of a track record at Pimlico.
Years ago, I asked Turcotte about the Preakness and Secretariat’s time.
“Well, I think I feel the same as everybody, that he broke the record,” Turcotte said. “He deserved the record. I’ve asked that time and time again because there’s so much proof. There’s overwhelming proof that he broke the record. But they never gave it to him. Mind you, the Racing Form chart says it’s a record.”
I then asked Turcotte if it was in his mind at the Belmont that Secretariat had been denied a track record in the Preakness. Turcotte admitted he did have that in mind during the final furlong of the Belmont. He said he did not want to take any chances of Secretariat being robbed of another track record.
“I did knuckle down on him a little bit the last 70 yards,” Turcotte said. “But I never did use my stick or tap him or anything. He just did it all on his own.”
I asked Turcotte if, at any time during the final furlong of the Belmont, he was looking at the timer in the infield.
“Oh, I was,” he said. “I was definitely looking at the timer. I was looking at the teletimer because I was not racing against any horse. All I was racing against was the clock at that point.”
Secretariat’s 2:24 Belmont clocking shattered Gallant Man’s track record set in 1957 by 2 3/5 seconds. Secretariat’s 2:24 remains the fastest 1 1/2 miles ever run by a horse on dirt.
So I am very thankful that E.T. McClean messed up Secretariat’s time in the 1973 Preakness. Because if McClean had not done that, then Secretariat probably would have won by a considerably small margin than 31 lengths in what many consider the greatest performance ever seen by a Thoroughbred in the history of American racing.
By Jon White
Xpressbet
With California Chrome’s bid for Triple Crown immortality coming up on June 7, this seems like a good time to reflect on Secretariat’s Triple Crown sweep in 1973.
It now has been 36 years since Affirmed swept the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes. It is the Triple Crown’s longest drought.
Affirmed was one of three Triple Crown winners in the glorious 1970s. Secretariat in 1973 and Seattle Slew in 1977 also accomplished the rare and extremely difficult feat.
There was a 25-year Triple Crown drought between Citation in 1948 and Secretariat in 1973. By the time Secretariat had come along, many were convinced that we would never see another Triple Crown winner.
“The foal crops are so much larger now than when Citation was racing,” had become a common explanation as to why the Triple Crown had become unattainable in the 1960s and 1970s.
Between Citation and Secretariat, seven horses were unable to complete a Triple Crown sweep after winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness:
1958 Tim Tam (finished 2nd in Belmont)
1961 Carry Back (7th in Belmont)
1964 Northern Dancer (3rd in Belmont)
1966 Kauai King (4th in Belmont)
1968 Forward Pass (2nd in Belmont)
1969 Majestic Prince (2nd in Belmont)
1971 Canonero II (4th in Belmont)
Most people agree that Native Dancer, who won the Preakness and Belmont in 1953, should have been a Triple Crown winner. He finished second to Dark Star in the Kentucky Derby, narrowly losing after being impeded early in the race. It would be Native Dancer’s lone defeat in 22 career starts.
In 1972, owner Meadow Stable, trainer Lucien Laurin and jockey Ron Turcotte collaborated with Riva Ridge to win two-thirds of the Triple Crown. The champion 2-year-old male of 1971, Riva Ridge won the Kentucky Derby by 3 1/4 lengths and Belmont by seven lengths. But Bee Bee Bee stung Riva Ridge in the Preakness. Riva Ridge finished fourth on a sloppy track, while Bee Bee Bee registered an 18-1 upset.
Early in 1973, I had come to the conclusion that Secretariat was finally going to end the long Triple Crown drought. Secretariat, who had been voted 1972 Horse of the Year as a 2-year-old, competed in the 1973 Triple Crown events for the same owner, trainer and jockey as Riva Ridge.
“Going out on a limb and living dangerously, I dare say that 1973 will be a historic year as Secretariat will become the first Triple Crown winner since the great Citation in 1948,” I wrote on March 22, 1973, in my high school newspaper.
Considering it had been a quarter of century since a Triple Crown sweep, that actually was a pretty bold prediction at the time. But I will admit that when I made that prediction, I was not aware that Sham was such a talented colt. Sham had not won the Santa Anita Derby yet.
I did not back away from my Triple Crown prediction even after Secretariat finished third behind Angle Light and Sham in the Wood Memorial two weeks before the Kentucky Derby. And even though my prediction that Secretariat would sweep the Triple Crown ultimately proved to be correct, I do feel that I was fortunate that he turned out to be great enough to defeat an exceptional colt in Sham.
Not only did Secretariat sweep the Triple Crown, he did so spectacularly. What made Secretariat’s sweep so spectacular is he won each Triple Crown race in such different fashion.
Last early among 13 starters in the Derby, Secretariat ran each quarter of a mile faster than the preceding one. He completed 1 1/4 miles in 1:59 2/5 to break the track record of 2:00 established by Northern Dancer in 1964. Thirty-six years later, Secretariat’s Derby time mark still stands.
In the Preakness, Secretariat made an electrifying move on the clubhouse turn. I have never seen a horse move so swiftly so early in a major race and still win.
To help prove just how great Secretariat was, he died in 1989, yet he still was able to break the stakes record for the Preakness in 2012. As far as I know, he is the only horse to break a stakes record 23 years after he died.
Secretariat’s original time for the Preakness was posted as 1:55. But there had been a timer malfunction.
Daily Racing Form’s highly respected clocker, Gene (Frenchy) Schwartz, and another Racing Form clocker, Frank Robinson, told the Form’s executive columnist, Joe Hirsch, that they had both timed Secretariat in 1:53 2/5, which would have broken Canonero II’s track record of 1:54.
In the Secretariat book “Big Red of Meadow Stable,” originally published shortly after Secretariat’s retirement in 1973, William Nack wrote of the final time for the 1973 Preakness: “The discrepancy would never be resolved, though the proof would be overwhelming in favor of the faster clocking. Pimlico officials, conceding that the electric timer had malfunctioned, would later accept the time belatedly reported to them by the track’s official timer, E.T. McClean, who claimed he had timed Secretariat in 1:54 2/5. Later still, behind the impetus of handicapper Steve Davidowitz, the Maryland Racing Commission held a hearing on the matter and listened to testimony presented by CBS-TV, among others, that Secretariat had beaten Canonero’s track record…But despite the time reported by two veteran Racing Form clockers, and despite the evidence presented by CBS-TV, the racing commission would finally decide to keep McClean’s time as official.”
The Racing Form took the unusual step to note for the record its disagreement with McClean’s 1:54 2/5 clocking in the official 1973 Preakness chart. In the Preakness chart, under the official race time of 1:54, it states: “Daily Racing Form Time 1:53 2/5 New Track Record.”
Canonero II’s time of 1:54 in 1971 stood as the Preakness record until Gate Dancer’s 1:53 3/5 clocking in 1984. And then, in 1985, Tank’s Prospect posted a record Preakness time of 1:53 2/5, a clocking matched by Louis Quatorze in 1996 and Curlin in 2007.
Tank’s Prospect, Louis Quatorze and Curlin shared the record for the fastest Preakness in history until the outcome of a special hearing held by the Maryland Racing Commission on June 19, 2012, at the request of Secretariat’s owner, Penny Chenery, and Tom Chuckas, president of Pimlico.
While many, including yours truly, criticized the Maryland Racing Commission for its original decision to accepted McClean’s 1:54 2/5 clocking for Secretariat, the commissioner’s hands actually were tied in 1973 by the state’s rules of racing at that time.
“State rules dictated that only the time from the official time keeper [McClean] could be used as a backup,” the Baltimore Sun’s Chris Korman wrote. “Chenery challenged the ruling later in the summer, and again in the late 1990s. That later appeal caused the commission to change its rules to allow for a time adjustment if compelling evidence could be presented.”
For more than two hours at the 2012 hearing, commissioners heard testimony, backed by modern technology, to prove Secretariat’s Preakness time actually was faster than 1:54 2/5.
“Chenery’s spokesman, Leonard Lusky, slowly built his case by calling on a former CBS director and video experts from Kentucky and Colorado to testify that the tape of the 1973 race had not been doctored and indeed reflected real time,” Korman wrote. “Digital technology allowed them to break down film frame-by-frame and create a comparison to other Preakness races.
“When Lusky finally showed three videos on the screen at once, stacked, the only immediately discernible difference was the quality of the film. The top block showed Louis Quatorze’s win in 1997, the middle showed Tank’s Prospect’s 1985 victory and the bottom Secretariat’s run. Though the productions used slightly different camera angles, the races clearly unfurled in unison.
“At the end, Secretariat hit the finish line at least a length and a half ahead of the other two -- even though Louis Quatorze and Tank’s Prospect had started the day sharing the race record of 1:53 2/5.”
The evidence was so compelling that, according to Korman, commissioners deliberated for only 10 minutes before announcing the vote had been 7-0 to change Secretariat’s official Preakness time to 1:53, a stakes record.
Korman reported that when the Maryland Racing Commission’s decision to change Secretariat’s time to a Preakness record 1:53 was announced, Chenery, 90 at the time, let out a cheer.
“People don’t like to be told something that, by implication, they got wrong,” Chenery was quoted as saying in Korman’s story. “So we had to be pretty delicate in presenting this. I just had to hope that they would listen to the evidence and not think about the precedent of overturning history. But we see it all the time in sports now. It’s accepted, with replays. It’s completely consistent with the way sports are conducted now, that we use all the analytical tools possible.”
Since 1973, Davidowitz had zealously railed against the injustice concerning Secretariat’s time for the Preakness. After the 2012 hearing, Davidowitz expressed his delight that Secretariat now is credited with having run the fastest Preakness in history.
While I, too, am extremely pleased that Secretariat finally has his Preakness record, I also am grateful that E.T. McClean originally goofed in terms of Secretariat’s Preakness time. Why? If Secretariat had been credited with a track record at Pimlico, as he should have been, chances are jockey Ron Turcotte would have taken Secretariat in hand during the last part of the Belmont. Secretariat would have coasted home to win by a much smaller margin than 31 lengths, or as the great Daily Racing Form writer Charles Hatton put it, “31 hysterical lengths.”
But even though Secretariat was far in front during the stretch run of the 1973 Belmont, Turcotte kept pumping his arms all the way to the finish. That’s because Secretariat and Turcotte were not just running against Sham and the other Belmont starters, they were running against the clock after believing (correctly, it turns out) the colt had been robbed of a track record at Pimlico.
Years ago, I asked Turcotte about the Preakness and Secretariat’s time.
“Well, I think I feel the same as everybody, that he broke the record,” Turcotte said. “He deserved the record. I’ve asked that time and time again because there’s so much proof. There’s overwhelming proof that he broke the record. But they never gave it to him. Mind you, the Racing Form chart says it’s a record.”
I then asked Turcotte if it was in his mind at the Belmont that Secretariat had been denied a track record in the Preakness. Turcotte admitted he did have that in mind during the final furlong of the Belmont. He said he did not want to take any chances of Secretariat being robbed of another track record.
“I did knuckle down on him a little bit the last 70 yards,” Turcotte said. “But I never did use my stick or tap him or anything. He just did it all on his own.”
I asked Turcotte if, at any time during the final furlong of the Belmont, he was looking at the timer in the infield.
“Oh, I was,” he said. “I was definitely looking at the timer. I was looking at the teletimer because I was not racing against any horse. All I was racing against was the clock at that point.”
Secretariat’s 2:24 Belmont clocking shattered Gallant Man’s track record set in 1957 by 2 3/5 seconds. Secretariat’s 2:24 remains the fastest 1 1/2 miles ever run by a horse on dirt.
So I am very thankful that E.T. McClean messed up Secretariat’s time in the 1973 Preakness. Because if McClean had not done that, then Secretariat probably would have won by a considerably small margin than 31 lengths in what many consider the greatest performance ever seen by a Thoroughbred in the history of American racing.