Posted on 06/09/2008 5:30:53 PM PDT by hole_n_one
Secretariat is widening now.!....
He is moving like a tremendous machine!........
Secretariat by 12!.......
Secretariat by 14 lengths on the turn!.......
Secretariat was as good as a horse can get. I heard the race announcer interviewed last Saturday, he said that Secretariat was so far ahead he simply had to guess at the distance. A good guess as it turned out.
Did you know that Secretariat had a heart that weighed 22 lbs? The typical thoroughbred heart weighs like 7-9 lbs. Sorry had to give a bit of trivia, I work for a horseracing website and LOVE the sport.
Today’s trivia question...you can NOT google it...who trained Secretariat?
Lucian Lauren???
Lucien Laurin?
Yes...very good.
Lucien Lauren
I have never been enthralled with Secretariat, for some reason Man O war has always held my fancy as the GOAT,what he did in only 21 races is unbelievable.
Yes.
thanks, but I googled it....trainer secretariat...came right up...
sometimes you know you are watching something truly special.
the people who were blessed enough to watch Babe Ruth dominate baseball. Jim Brown dominate football. Michael Jordans shot over Craig Ehlo. Tiger Woods.
Secretarian is on the list. the people who were alive in 1973 really enjoyed a treat.
Well, it’s easy if you google it. :-)
Saw it on TV live. Tremendous.
OK, my two googling friends...without using google, in which state was Secretariat bred?
And as far as Big Brown. All I have read and researched over the past few weeks..well, BB is a very smart horse... that is the ideas that I came out with...Saturday... Belmont. 95 degrees....80% humidity....BB says hell with this... all the rest run...BB says “no way.... too hot for me.. out of my comfort zone”...kinda reminds me of my cat, laying on my porch this past Saturday afternoon.
He looks up at me, same weather conditions, and says, “I ain’t movin today, sorry.”
..
Big Brown, smart horse, all the rest were dumb. The rest win bigs bucks for owner. BB’ dinner was probably still the same on Saturday night... win or last place..
I was thrilled to see BB lose. Not because of the horse, but because Dutrow is an arrogant punk who needed a big dose of humility.
Same state I came from...VA
“Big Brown, smart horse, all the rest were dumb.”
Ha...you are not the first to suggest this. I have read comments from several of the great trainers that some intelligent horses figure out they don’t have to run.
“Same state I came from...VA”
And I assumed you were from NC...
You could be a White House press secretary.
lol!
Actually, given what we know, that's as thoughtful and plausible an explanation as I've heard yet.
Yes, I heard Secretariet's heart described as 2.5 times normal size.
Perhaps the greatest ever along with Man O War. What hearts these two had.
Don’t forget Ruffian, the filly who is buried at Belmont.
I will never forget that race. I was sitting in the NCO club at Edwards AFB in California, pleasantly fortified with a belly full of beer, watching this most incredible race on TV. The whole bar was standing and yelling, just excited as hell at such a remarkable performance. There were guys there who thought the 1-1/2 mile distance would be too much for Big Red (Secretariat’s nickname), and had placed their money on Sham, a very good horse in his own right. Going into the final turn, when Big Red was obviously taking off like a ballistic missile, even the Sham bettors were cheering Secretariat on. It was just one of those once-in-a-lifetime events, where everyone was transported on the excitement of watching history being made.
Secretariat had “supercruise”.
Horses today are rushed into the Derby without a solid foundation of racing. That is likely why we haven’t had a TC winner in 30 years. Just look at the records of the last winners and include Real Quiet in that list who lost it by a nose in 1998-—all of the horses since 1978 that won (and Real Quiet) had a solid 2YO season, Big Red had 12 races before entering the Derby, Seattle Slew had 6 (all wins and in graded races), Affirmed had 9 starts and Real Quiet also had 9 starts. These races build stamina and endurance, it is no wonder Big Brown failed, he only had 3 races coming into the Derby and the TC attempt was only his 6th lifetime start. They need to stop the drugs and start training the way they used to. Remember when a horse used to race at least 20 times before retiring? That doesn’t happen anymore. Imagine Citation in 1948 who retired after 45 races, that is definitely a thing of the past.
The Best!
I’ve been telling everyone this for years.
I have a great story that was written in 2004 posted here:
http://stevesees.blogspot.com/2008/05/belmont-remembering-1973.html#links
universally loved......can’t say that about very many humans....
Thanks for the link!
They humorously call the sport of horse racing “improving the breed”, but the breed reach it’s all-time peak in 1973. I expect to die without ever seeing a better horse than Secretariat.
And most people forget that Sham was also a very fine horse. In any other year but 1973 he would have won at least 2 legs of the triple crown, and perhaps the whole thing.
You’re quite welcome!
There’s nothing wrong with trivia from someone who loves his subject.
In humans an enlarged heart is not a good thing, apparently it wasn’t the case with Secretariat. I’m only a casual watcher of the sport, but even a casual fan had to find Secretariat about as exciting as sport can get.
"His only point of reference," trainer Charlie Hatton once said, "is himself."
And Man O’ War did it without the benefit of modern medicine.
“In humans an enlarged heart is not a good thing, apparently it wasn’t the case with Secretariat.”
Even in humans there is such a thing as an “athlete’s heart”, which is quite different from an enlarged heart due to disease. My stepfather had an enlarged heart his whole life, lived to 97, and died due to an accident.
“Man O’ War did it without the benefit of modern medicine.”
Man O’ War also did it without the hindrance of modern competition. Would he have beaten Sham 3 times? The time clock says no.
THe point of the matter is that Man O war was THE standard by all horses were compared too, even Secretariat, Man O war was so dominant he won 20 out of the 21 races he competed in, coming in 2 in his only non first finish(many think it was rigged), Man O War held almost every major speed record until modern breeding took hold(many thanks to his DNA) and modern steroids. So you can play the ‘well the time clock says no game’ all day, but it doesnt take away his greatness and why he is considered by many experts to be the GOAT.
Did you forget that Sham and other modern competitors have the benefit of modern medicine and training?
This is, in my opinion, the greatest singular sporting event in history. I watched the video and got goosebumps all over again.
Ran each quarter mile faster than the previous one, still accelerating at the finish line, one of (if not the) fastest run on such a track surface. Spectacular horse!
Man O'War at least had the good fortune to lose only to the wonderfully-named Upset.
Yet Man O War was ranked the number one thoroughbred in US History by a magazine that is experts on the subject(unlike ESPN’s popularity list),while Native Dancer was number 7.
I think that sort of thing is fascinating.
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